Adjacent Words

Intercourse definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IN'TERCOURSE, n. [L. intercursus, intercurro; inter and curro, to run.] Literally, a running or passing between. Hence,
1. Communication; commerce; connection by reciprocal dealings between persons or nations, either in common affairs and civilities, in trade, or correspondence by letters. We have an intercourse with neighbors and friends in mutual visits and in social concerns; nations and individuals have intercourse with foreign nations or individuals by an interchange of commodities, by purchase and sale, by treaties, contracts, etc.
2. Silent communication or exchange.
This sweet intercourse
Of looks and smiles.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: communication between individuals [syn: intercourse, social intercourse]
2: the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur [syn: sexual intercourse, intercourse, sex act, copulation, coitus, coition, sexual congress, congress, sexual relation, relation, carnal knowledge]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English intercurse, probably from Middle French entrecours, from Medieval Latin intercursus, from Latin, act of running between, from intercurrere to run between, from inter- + currere to run — more at car Date: 15th century 1. connection or dealings between persons or groups 2. exchange especially of thoughts or feelings ; communion 3. physical sexual contact between individuals that involves the genitalia of at least one person <anal intercourse> <oral intercourse>; especially sexual intercourse 1 <heterosexual intercourse>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 communication or dealings between individuals, nations, etc. 2 = sexual intercourse. 3 communion between human beings and God. Etymology: ME f. OF entrecours exchange, commerce, f. L intercursus (as INTER-, currere curs- run)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Intercourse In"ter*course, n. [Formerly entercourse, OF. entrecours commerce, exchange, F. entrecours a reciprocal right on neighboring lands, L. intercursus a running between, fr. intercurrere to run between. See Inter-, and Course.] A commingling; intimate connection or dealings between persons or nations, as in common affairs and civilities, in correspondence or trade; communication; commerce; especially, interchange of thought and feeling; association; communion. This sweet intercourse Of looks and smiles. --Milton. Sexual intercourse, sexual or carnal connection; coition. Syn: Communication; connection; commerce; communion; fellowship; familiarity; acquaintance.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Intercourse is the act of having sex. (FORMAL) ...sexual intercourse... We didn't have intercourse. 2. Social intercourse is communication between people as they spend time together. (OLD-FASHIONED) There was social intercourse between the old and the young. N-UNCOUNT: usu adj N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Communication, commerce, converse, communion, connection, mutual exchange.

Moby Thesaurus

ESP, accord, act of love, addition, adjunct, adultery, affairs, affiliation, affinity, agglomeration, agglutination, aggregation, alliance, alternation, answer, aphrodisia, approximation, articulation, ass, assemblage, association, balance of trade, balling, big business, bond, bracketing, business, business dealings, carnal knowledge, climax, closeness, clustering, coaction, cohabitation, coition, coitus, coitus interruptus, collegiality, colloquial discourse, colloquy, combination, commerce, commercial affairs, commercial relations, communication, communion, community, complementary distribution, concatenation, concourse, concurrence, confluence, congeries, conglomeration, congress, conjugation, conjunction, connectedness, connection, contact, contiguity, contrariety, convergence, conversation, converse, conversing, cooperation, copula, copulation, correspondence, coupling, dealing, dealings, deduction, diddling, discourse, disjunction, engagement, exchange, fair trade, fellowship, filiation, fornication, free trade, gathering, give-and-take, homology, hookup, industry, information, interaction, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunion, interlacing, interlinking, interlocution, intermeshing, interplay, intertwining, interweaving, interworking, intimacy, joinder, joining, jointure, junction, knotting, liaison, linguistic intercourse, link, linkage, linking, lovemaking, making it with, marital relations, market, marketing, marriage, marriage act, mating, meat, meeting, mercantile business, merchantry, merger, merging, mesh, meshing, message, multilateral trade, mutual attraction, nearness, onanism, orgasm, ovum, pairing, pareunia, procreation, propinquity, proximity, quid pro quo, rapping, rapport, reciprocal trade, relatedness, relation, relations, relationship, reply, response, restraint of trade, screwing, seesaw, sex, sex act, sexual climax, sexual commerce, sexual congress, sexual intercourse, sexual relations, sexual union, similarity, sleeping with, small business, social activity, social intercourse, social relations, speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, sperm, splice, symbiosis, sympathy, talking, telepathy, the business world, the marketplace, tie, tie-in, tie-up, tit for tat, touch, trade, traffic, truck, two-way communication, unification, unilateral trade, union, venery, verbal intercourse, yoking