marriage of convenience

English

Etymology

Calque of French mariage de convenance.

Noun

marriage of convenience (plural marriages of convenience)

  1. A marriage motivated by some reason other than love; for example, one conducted to obtain residence rights in a country, for financial gain, or for political purposes.
    • 1988 April 23, Adam Starchild, “Personal Advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
      Widely published author and business consultant would like a marriage of convenience with a woman who is an Irish or Austrian citizen. You get legal resident status in U.S. (and eligibility for student aid), and I get eligibility for prison furloughs plus the citizenship of a neutral country in a few years so I can start a new life elsewhere.
  2. (figuratively) A big tent alliance of disparate factions (such as political factions).
    Libertarians and the Religious Right make odd bedfellows, but that marriage of convenience in the Republican Party has stuck around since the 1980s.
    • 2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:
      Kofi Annan’s marriage of convenience is likely to last only as long as it takes the political players to build up war chests ahead of another electoral bout.

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