Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An instance or a means of communication between different groups or units of an organization, especially in the armed forces.
  • noun One that maintains communication.
  • noun A sexual relationship, especially when at least one person is married or involved in a sexual relationship with someone else.
  • noun Linguistics Pronunciation of the usually silent final consonant of a word when followed by a word beginning with a vowel, especially in French.
  • intransitive verb To serve as a liaison.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bond of union; an intimacy; entanglement; commonly, an illicit intimacy between a man and a woman.
  • noun In the French language, the linking or joining in pronunciation of a final consonant, usually silent, to the succeeding word when that begins with a vowel: for example, vous (vö) and avez, when coming together, are pronounced vö zavā.
  • noun In cookery, a thickening, generally of beaten eggs, intended to combine or amalgamate the ingredients of a dish.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A union, or bond of union; an intimacy; an interrelationship.
  • noun An illicit sexual relation between a man and a woman; a sexual afffair.
  • noun A process of communication between parts of an organization or between two organizations acting together for a common purpose.
  • noun A person whose function it is to maintain such communication.
  • noun (Phonetics) A pronunciation of a consonant sound that would be otherwise silent, such as the final consonant of certain French words, when the following word begins with a vowel sound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Communication between two parties or groups.
  • noun Co-operation, working together.
  • noun A relayer of information between two forces in an army or during war.
  • noun A tryst, romantic meeting.
  • noun figuratively An illicit sexual relationship or affair.
  • noun linguistics A sandhi in which a normally silent final consonant is pronounced when the next word begins with a vowel.
  • verb proscribed To liaise.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
  • noun a channel for communication between groups

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from Latin ligātiō, ligātiōn-, from ligātus, past participle of ligāre, to bind; see ligate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French liaison ("binding"), from Latin ligatio (stem ligation-) (English ligation), derived from ligō, from Proto-Indo-European *leygʰ- (“to bind”).

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Examples

  • Now, often, CIA agents have what they call a liaison relationship with the host government.

    CNN Transcript Nov 4, 2009 2009

  • And what they call liaison officers, that is intelligence officers, and friendly intelligence services.

    CNN Transcript Aug 24, 2006 2006

  • It's good cross-talking, and we're sharing what we call liaison officers to cross-talk and make sure we're doing things correctly.

    CNN Transcript Sep 24, 2005 2005

  • To name both the act of thickening and the agents of thickening, early French cooks used the word liaison, which meant a close connection or bond, whether physical, political, or amorous.

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • To name both the act of thickening and the agents of thickening, early French cooks used the word liaison, which meant a close connection or bond, whether physical, political, or amorous.

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • CHAMBLISS: Certainly, Wolf, the top priority is infiltrating terrorist organizations with human assets, people who work for us, rather than depending on what we refer to as liaison assets, people from other countries who work for other intelligence organizations, providing us with information.

    CNN Transcript Nov 23, 2003 2003

  • RUMSFELD: I think it is certainly likely that they could be doing something other than what you characterize as liaison work.

    CNN Transcript Dec 13, 2001 2001

  • Dutocq had seen with great uneasiness what he called the liaison of des Lupeaulx with Madame Rabourdin, and his silent wrath on the subject was accumulating.

    Bureaucracy Honor�� de Balzac 1824

  • (More on the French word "liaison" at the excellent L'internaute. com)

    French Word-A-Day: 2009

  • (More on the French word "liaison" at the excellent L'internaute. com)

    liaison - French Word-A-Day 2009

Comments

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  • “The process of thickening a sauce, soup or stew. This includes all rouxs, starch and water mixtures (slurries), beurre marni and egg yolks with or without cream. Egg yolks must be tempered with hot liquid before adding to the liquid in order to prevent curdling.�?

    That's from this glossary. I'd previously only been familiar with the weirdnet definitions.

    November 13, 2008

  • The spelling of this word looks really funny.

    November 13, 2008