live in sin
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To cohabitate with someone in a romantic relationship without being married
Literally: reside in a wrongful state
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He wrote in his Testament not long before he died: " While I was living in sin, it seemed a very bitter thing to look at lepers; but the Lord Himself led me among them, and I had compassion on them.
We were, after all, living in sin, and she was a devoted Catholic.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “live in sin” mean?
To cohabitate with someone in a romantic relationship without being married Literally: reside in a wrongful state
Is “live in sin” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.