dalliance

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“
She is a singularly fine animal to whom Providence has, by an unusual generosity, given a soul, though mostly, maybe, it hides in the silken dalliance which is the note of Angélique You will perceive, my old friend and, I hope, old enemy, that I present to you a whole bouquet of charms: beauty of form, the radiance of a personality, and brains with an edge to flatter or flout.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Frivolous spending of time; dawdling.
  2. noun Playful flirtation.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Random episodes of mildly erotic dalliance, as Lurlina effectively wooed Oz into being. —  SON OF A WITCH
  • And dalliance was all he could offer Miss Honor Jamieson. —  Mary Balogh - An Unacceptable Offer
  • He had fallen in love with her; she had treated him as a therapeutic dalliance, a passing cure for her problems. —  From Lust to Love by Cathy Willi
  • Red Bank, N.J., businessman Arthur J. Kelly accused his wife Ann C. Kelly of having an affair with Springsteen, claiming the alleged dalliance is the reason his 17-year marriage broke up, according to the —  Pollstar Photo RSS Feed
  • We can compare and contrast her to Don's new dalliance-she doesn't qualify as a mistress-the wife / manager Bobbie Barrett. —  The latest from newcritics
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English daliance, daliaunce, daliauns, from dalien, dally, + -ance.
 

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/ˈdælɪəns/
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