Meanings
plural sisters-out-law
- The sister of one's boyfriend or girlfriend.
- Girlfriend of one's brother or sister.
“If you're openly gay, wouldn't that make you his sister-out-law?”
2014, Janice Ryan Hall, Deadly Ties: Sequel to Blood Ties, volume 2 (Fiction), →ISBN, D1dXDQAAQBAJ, page 5653 more examples
I, on the other side, was ready to strangle my almost sister-in-law. (My sister out-law.)
2008, John Crawley, Among the Aspen, →ISBN, TDrcNfNKVH4C, page 114This included Prunella Tuff, my “sister-out-law”, a term we invented to describe the relationship between us as she was the sister of my brother in-law, Tim Tuff.
2013, Howard Balloch, Semi-Nomadic Anecdotes (Biography & Autobiography), →ISBN, jwc6BgAAQBAJ, page 59I, on the other side, was ready to strangle my almost sister-in-law. (My sister out-law.)
2015, Katherine Woodward Thomas, Conscious Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After (Family & Relationships), →ISBN, 2pv0BQAAQBAJ, page 59 - The sister of one's ex-spouse.
Origin
From sister + -out-law, by analogy to sister-in-law.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
sister-out-law. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sister-out-law
“sister-out-law.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sister-out-law. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sister-out-law,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sister-out-law.
Source: sister-out-law on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.