Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Frivolous spending of time; dawdling.
- n. Playful flirtation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Familiar and easy conversation; idle talk; chat; gossip.
- n. A trifling away of time; delay; idle loitering.
- n. Play; sport; frolic; toying, as in the exchange of caresses; wantonness.
- n. The act of trifling, as with something tempting.
Wiktionary
- n. A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play.
- n. Delay or procrastination.
- n. obsolete Entertaining discourse.
WordNet 3.0
- n. playful behavior intended to arouse sexual interest
- n. the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working
Etymologies
- From Middle English (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The same sort of dalliance is going on in Manchester according to Hopi Sen”
“Her long-term dalliance with the party, and in-her-position-as-governor publicly stated support for them, raises a serious question about her first loyalty. which is it, Alaska or the USA?”
GOP Rep. Says There's No "Thread" Of Patriotism In Obama's Background
“His needs were met by the anonymous prostitutes of the Marine district, and by the occasional short-term dalliance with fellow civil servants.”
Asimov's Science Fiction
“Leontius, a Eustathius, or a Brutus, would rather pass his hours in dalliance with an unlettered courtezan, than in the conversation of a Theano, a”
Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination
“a Pythagoras, a Leontius, a Eustathius, or a Brutus, would rather pass his hours in dalliance with an unlettered courtezan, than in the conversation of a Theano, a”
Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination
“In his biography, Andrew Motion called the dalliance with Patsy "the most happily erotic" of Larkin's relationships.”
“We're also glad to see it's not just a lesbian dalliance, which is a storyline much more suited for college students on television.”
“The idea of mixing religion with official military functions is more frightening and dangerous than government in general in some kind of dalliance with it.”
“I take it to signify any occasion when one attains a degree of maturity or adulthood, e.g. a bar mitzvah, or more generally a rite of passage such as dalliance with Mr Arnott's alluring Ms Fagg!”
“The woman in question who apparently was having some kind of dalliance, according to reports with Tiger Woods, not confirmed by any credible media source, has done an interview with "The New York Post," on the record, explaining her position and explaining what she thinks has been outlandish lies and rumors about her.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dalliance’.
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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howtoflyhome's list
tacenda, ubiquarian, codify, velleity, psithurism, susurration, palaver, haplology, allophony, austere, popinjay, redolent and 11 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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....the prison library
// god mandated attempt to realign with the timeless forces of the universe via remastered locution //
desultory, dénouement, demesne, dalliance, chatoyant, antechamber, akimbo, cacography, germane, cuboid, miasma, mordant and 89 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
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beautiful words
words that sound pretty and have a pretty meaning
bucolic, dalliance, dulcet, ebullience, effervescent, efflorescence, eloquence, felicity, fetching
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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word list!!!!
lagniappe
syzygy, bloviate, lagniappe, laconic, condign, umbrage, susurrus, thaumaturgy, capacious, capitulate, glower, repast and 179 more...
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List 1
erudite, iniquitous, acrimonious, implacable, fractious, irascible, debonair, churlish, brusque, sycophantic, phlegmatic, indomitable and 108 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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rhii's words to remember and incorporate
Just whatever words I might happen across in my wanderings that I find myself compelled to write down so that I remember to try to use them. Not necessarily unusual words, but worthwhile ones.
redact, treatise, vitrify, cogitate, propensity, silphium, saccharine, minutiae, sluicing, dalliance, remonstrated, carnelian and 131 more...
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words I love
uncouth, milquetoast, clusterfuck, salacious, usurp, harpoon, unsavoury, bulwark, legerdemain, qualm, quagmire, trumps and 209 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dalliance.

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