jump the broomstick

jump the broomstick
   to live together as a couple without marrying
   This symbolic leap replaced the wedding ceremony:
    Besides I ain't married proper. No more than if I jumped a broomstick. (B. Comwell, 1993, writing in archaic style)
   Whence the broomstick match, or common-law marriage:
    I never had a wife but I had two or three broomstick matches. (Mayhew, 1851)
   You might also have been said to jump the besom.

How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. . 2014.

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  • jump the broom — To jump the broom is to marry. (Jump over the broom, jump over the broomstick, jump the broomstick are also used.) …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • leap the broomstick —    obsolete    to live together as a couple without marrying    A variant of jump the broomstick and also as leap the besom. It applied to couples who were by choice cohabiting without being married, or to those without access to a priest:    … …   How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms

  • over the broomstick —    obsolete    cohabiting and copulating outside marriage    The outcome if you decided to jump the broomstick:     ... this woman in Garradstreet here, had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man. (C. Dickens …   How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms

  • jump over the broomstick — phrasal or jump the broom dialect : to get married we ought to jump the broom J.H.Stuart …   Useful english dictionary

  • jump the broom — phrasal see jump over the broomstick …   Useful english dictionary

  • broomstick match —    see jump the broomstick …   How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms

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  • broomstick — /ˈbrumstɪk/ (say broohmstik) noun 1. the long stick forming the handle of a broom. –phrase 2. jump (or marry){{}} (over) the broomstick (or broom), British (formerly, especially in Wales) to go through a quasi marri …  

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