betroth

verb4

1. •
   (formal) Often of a parent or guardian: to promise that (two people) be married to each other; specifically and chiefly, to promise that (a woman) be given in marriage to a man; to affiance.

   • He betrothed his daughter to a distant relative.
   • The couple were betrothed not long after they met each other.
2. •
   (formal, no longer used) Of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a future spouse; to plight one's troth to.

   • And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him goe and returne vnto his house, lest he die in battel, and another man take her. — 1611
3. •
   (figurative, no longer used) To pledge or promise oneself to (a cause); to espouse; also (sometimes reflexive), to pledge or promise (oneself or one's efforts) to a cause or to do something.

   • To priuate fight they haue betroutht themselues, / Of which conflicte, the end must needes be this, / That one do liue, that other die the death. — 1566
4. •
   (figurative, no longer used) Of God: to enter into a relationship with (believers, or the church as a whole); also, of a priest: to pledge (himself) to the church prior to being consecrated as a bishop.

   • God betrotheth thee in righteousnes, and putteth righteousnes into thee; […] — 1643