Definition of "coverture"

coverture

noun
countable and uncountable, plural covertures
1. (law, historical) A common law doctrine developed in England during the Middle Ages, whereby a woman's legal existence, upon marriage, was subsumed by that of her husband, particularly with regard to ownership of property and protection.
  Quotations
  Note that voting by widows did not raise some of the concerns that might have arisen from voting by wives subject to common-law coverture servitude to their husbands.
  2006, Akhil Reed Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography
2. Alternative spelling of couverture.
3. Shelter, hiding place.
  Quotations
  URSULA. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fishCut with her golden oars the silver stream,And greedily devour the treacherous bait:So angle we for Beatrice; who even nowIs couched in the woodbine coverture.
  1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]