as in veil
something that covers or conceals like a piece of cloth
under the coverture of a raging snowstorm, the rebels undertook their surprise attack on the fortress
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Recent Examples of coverture
For centuries, the doctrine of coverture rendered married women the property of their husbands with no legal rights of their own.
—
Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
While Northern women were trapped in coverture, Southern states were bypassing coverture specifically for the purpose of giving married women rights to own enslaved people.
—Trevon Logan, The Conversation, 10 June 2024
Heavenly Mother, according to our own doctrine, can’t be some wilting Victorian flower shrinking under the protective coverture of a strong man.
—The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 May 2022
The famous legal scholar William Blackstone had interpreted coverture rather strictly in the 1760s, and the American Revolution did nothing to change that.
—Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2022
That started to change by about the 18th century, when coverture laws—which counted wives as legal property of their husbands—grew more entrenched in Britain, and evolved to effectively forbid women from owning land at all.
—Michael Waters, The Atlantic, 27 Oct. 2021
In the nascent American Republic, where some humans could vote and most others were in coverture to their voting husbands or were the property of those men, the notion of majority representation was corrupted a priori.
—Shannon Pufahl, The New York Review of Books, 21 Apr. 2020
Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
While Northern women were trapped in coverture, Southern states were bypassing coverture specifically for the purpose of giving married women rights to own enslaved people.
—Trevon Logan, The Conversation, 10 June 2024
Heavenly Mother, according to our own doctrine, can’t be some wilting Victorian flower shrinking under the protective coverture of a strong man.
—The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 May 2022
The famous legal scholar William Blackstone had interpreted coverture rather strictly in the 1760s, and the American Revolution did nothing to change that.
—Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2022
That started to change by about the 18th century, when coverture laws—which counted wives as legal property of their husbands—grew more entrenched in Britain, and evolved to effectively forbid women from owning land at all.
—Michael Waters, The Atlantic, 27 Oct. 2021
In the nascent American Republic, where some humans could vote and most others were in coverture to their voting husbands or were the property of those men, the notion of majority representation was corrupted a priori.
—Shannon Pufahl, The New York Review of Books, 21 Apr. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coverture
Noun
-
Lahav black ballgown with sheer black veil and beaded appliqués throughout.—
Alex Apatoff,
PEOPLE,
11 Apr. 2026
-
Rieger Lorenz hit the crossbar in OT1 … and then senior captain Kent Anderson pierced the veil in OT2.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The picture shows Trump wearing a red cloak with his hand over someone’s forehead, appearing to heal them.—
Charlotte Hazard,
Baltimore Sun,
13 Apr. 2026
-
A little girl covered head to toe in an all-enveloping cloak furiously peddles a bicycle.—
Jane Arraf,
NPR,
11 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Toyo Ito’s 2006 Meiso no Mori Funeral Hall in Gifu, Japan, shelters mourners beneath an undulating thin-concrete canopy like a billowing shroud.—
Justin Davidson,
Curbed,
14 Apr. 2026
-
The aftermath of his teenage sister’s tragic death in a car accident was a shroud over his childhood.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Coverture.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coverture. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.
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