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  1. osculate love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To kiss.
  2. v. Mathematics To have three or more points coincident with.
  3. v. To come together; contact.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To salute with a kiss; kiss.
  2. In geometry, to have a higher contact with; touch as closely as possible. Thus, a plane or a circle is said to osculate a curve when it has three coincident points in common with the curve — that is, it occupies such a position (and in the case of the circle has such a size) that as it is brought up into this position three points of intersection with the curve run into one. A sphere is said to osculate a tortuous curve when it has four coincident points in common with the curve. In these cases, to osculate means to have the greatest number of coincident and successive points common to a fixed locus which is compatible with the general character of the locus which osculates; and some geometers restrict the word to this meaning. This meaning is also extended to time: thus, the osculating elements of a planet are those elliptic elements which would satisfy three exact observations made at times infinitely little removed from a given epoch. But osculate is also used loosely to mean merely that the loci in question have three or more coincident points in common. A tangent-line or-plane is never said to osculate a curve or surface unless it has more than ordinary contact with it.
  3. To kiss one another; kiss.
  4. In geometry, to have, as two loci, three or more coincident and successive points in common. See I., 2.
  5. In natural history, to share the characters of another group.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive To kiss someone or something.
  2. v. mathematics To touch so as to have a common tangent at the point of contact.
  3. v. intransitive To make contact.
  4. v. To perform osculation.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To kiss.
  2. v. (Geom.) To touch closely, so as to have a common curvature at the point of contact. See Osculation, 2.
  3. v. To kiss one another; to kiss.
  4. v. (Geom.) To touch closely. See Osculation, 2.
  5. v. (Biol.) To have characters in common with two genera or families, so as to form a connecting link between them; to interosculate. See Osculant.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. have at least three points in common with
  2. v. touch with the lips or press the lips (against someone's mouth or other body part) as an expression of love, greeting, etc.
  3. v. be intermediate between two taxonomic groups

Etymologies

  1. Latin ōsculārī, ōsculāt-, from ōsculum, kiss, diminutive of ōs, mouth; see ōs- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “These people can osculate my posterior … “Not on zee left side, not on zee right side, but right in zee middle.””

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Update on the Health Care Trojan Horse for Fascism

  • “Those who are in a hurry to deprive me of that choice can osculate my posterior.”

    Edwards' Big Potential: Delegate Strength

  • “Even those discussions which, at a first view, might seem to belong rather to natural theology, were deliberately assigned to their place after long experience in teaching, as pertaining to the limits where the two fields osculate if they do not cut, and with a clear pre-eminence given to the ethical side of the truths common to both.”

    Outlines of Moral Science.

  • “That there are points on which the moral systems of men and nations osculate, is most true; that there should have been certain approximations on many most important subjects was to be expected from the essential identity of human nature, in all ages and countries; but their deviations in some point or other -- usually in several -- from what we acknowledge to be both right and expedient, is equally undeniable.”

    The Eclipse of Faith Or, A Visit To A Religious Sceptic

  • “But watch again and something happens: you see a moment both sweet and wry as a couple shyly osculate in "The Kiss," a quiet dignity beneath the brawny bravado in "Sandow: The Strong Man.”

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch

  • “He and all the REST of his kind can osculate my superannuated queer posterior.”

    365 Gay News

  • “The form of lyric poetry anciently intended to be sung. osculate v. To kiss. odious adj.”

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows

  • “Why use 'kiss" when "osculate" so chewably fills the mouth and sounds so obliquely and innocently obscene?”

    The Huffington Post: Stephen J. Gertz: S.J. Perelman, Humorist, Cardiology a Specialty

  • “Also in what points the professional shall osculate the Academic course, to what extent elections shall be offered the Academic students, and at what periods of their own course, and upon what terms the professional Students may avail themselves of the Academic departments, also when our services may be of use to the general system, it seems to us should be settled by those who have so long and so ably presided over our University and to whom we are so deeply indebted for present positions.”

    Letter from Charles Phillips and Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick to David L. Swain, October 13, 1853

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  • pavonine Also, to touch with the lips Nov 23, 2007

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‘osculate’ has been looked up 3268 times, loved by 12 people, added to 67 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 10.