undivorce

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ divorce.

Verb

undivorce (third-person singular simple present undivorces, present participle undivorcing, simple past and past participle undivorced)

1. To undo or cancel a divorce.
   • 1971, Saturday Review - Volume 54, page 59:

     'Did you undivorce me?' " Rafer asked. Daddy explained that he had divorced only Rafer's mother, and off they went to the park.

   • 1995, Timothy B. Rogers, The Psychological Testing Enterprise: An Introduction, page 790:

     An interesting presentation of the implications of this divorce between producer and consumer can be found in Toffler (1980), who uses the terms second wave to refer to the modern era and third wave to refer to the more postmodern perspectives where attempts are made to undivorce (remarry?) the two.

   • 2000, Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Murder, page 172:

     "What's her angle?" I went on. "Surely after all these years the dame must have known she was divorced. Why in hell should she be trying to undivorce herself now?"

Noun

undivorce (plural undivorces)

1. A marriage in which the partners remain married in name only.
   • 1978, Helen Kooiman Hosier, The other side of divorce, page 13:

     We were Christians; Christians living in a state of undivorce.yet striving to keep the marriage together while living in great unpeace and disharmony.

   • 2001, Joseph F. Trimmer, Maxine Hairston, The Riverside Reader, page 187:

     My divorce was related to her undivorce, so the generations unfold back to back handing on their burdens — by contamination, memory, experience, identification, one's failure becomes the other's.

   • 2006, Amy Scheibe, What Do You Do All Day?:

     Max screams from the other room just as I am nodding off on my own couch, sorting through how I feel about the undivorce.

   • 2015, Hilary Freeman, When I Was Me:

     I fill him in about Billy and Deeta, about my parents and their 'undivorce'.

2. A state of not being divorced.
   • 2005, Jessica Auerbach, Writing in Chocolate: A Memoir:

     “They're not divorced. Not legally. Not even separated.” “She said they were.” “Uh huh. So now you've got to wonder why she was saying those things, don't you?” “How did you find out about the undivorce?”

   • 2014, Jennifer Graham, Honey, Do You Need a Ride?: Confessions of a Fat Runner:

     Michael is not, in fact, interested in an undivorce, but in making our divorce more permanent.