serial polygamy

plural serial polygamies

1. derogatoryuncountableusuallyThe practice of marrying and divorcing a succession of individual spouses.

   Near-synonym: serial monogamy

   4 more examples

   "In America, you have so much divorce—perhaps because adultery was once a capital crime. You've ended up with serial polygamy."

   1980 December 26, Lynn Darling, “The Haunted Exile of Novelist Anthony Burgess”, in Washington Post, retrieved 22 May 2018

   More recently, men like Donald Trump and Ronald Perelman have adopted a new form of marriage, serial polygamy—many wives, one at a time—which is possibly the worst system of all.

   1998 December 21, John Tierney, “The Big City: Capital Sweats As New York Swings”, in New York Times, retrieved 22 May 2018

   Marriage can be a form of temporary concubinage, lightly initiated, easily ended. Instead of lifelong union, it is, for many newly-weds, an introduction to serial polygamy.

   1999 March 14, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, “The ring of truth”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 22 May 2018

   [T]he widespread acceptance and frequency of divorce means that the bond of marriage is permanent only as long as you want it to be. Thus, state-sanctioned and socially accepted serial polygamy is now the order of the day.

   2008 February, Monsignor Robert J. Dempsey, "The Catholic Church's Teaching About Same-Sex Marriage," Linacre Quarterly, vol. 75, pp. 74-75 (Google preview)

   Synonyms: serial monogamy