Meanings
second family1
plural second families
- Alternative letter-case form of Second Family.
- a married man’s mistress and her children.
We have precedent for two opposite social attitudes toward second families, as they were called before legal second families through sequential marriage became so fashionable.
1984, Judith Martin, Miss Manners' Guide to Rearing Perfect Children1 more example
The children in these families often only grasped to full extent of a paterfamilias’s perfidy at his funeral, when they would discover, standing at the graveside, a previously known unknown second family, complete with second widow, grieving children and claims to the estate.
2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower
Second Family2
- The family of the Vice President of the United States.
Cite this entry
second family. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/second%20family
“second family.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/second%20family. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “second family,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/second%20family.
Source: second family on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.