solemn vow

noun

, Roman Catholic Church.

1. a perpetual, irrevocable public vow taken by a religious, in which property may not be owned by the individual, and marriage is held invalid under canon law.

Word History and Origins

Origin of solemn vow¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

Four days before Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter was accepted, he made a solemn vow.

From Slate

Netanyahu’s solemn vow was that the Jewish state would never allow a regime promoting Holocaust denial and that was committed to Israel’s destruction to acquire nuclear weapons.

From Los Angeles Times

And it made a solemn vow by the United States to support the defense of Taiwan: “to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means … a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States.”

From Washington Post

"When my last movie 'UHF' came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork," Yankovic said in a statement.

From Salon

“When my last movie ‘UHF’ came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork.

From Los Angeles Times