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Webster 1913 Edition


Dalliance

Dal′li-ance

,
Noun.
[From
Dally
.]
1.
The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play.
Look thou be true, do not give
dalliance

Too much the rein.
Shakespeare
O, the
dalliance
and the wit,
The flattery and the strife!
Tennyson.
2.
Delay or procrastination.
Shak.
3.
Entertaining discourse.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dalliance

DAL'LIANCE

,
Noun.
1.
Literally, delay; a lingering; appropriately, acts of fondness; interchange of caresses; toying, as males and females; as youthful dalliance.
2.
Conjugal embraces; commerce of the sexes.
3.
Delay.

Definition 2024


dalliance

dalliance

English

Noun

dalliance (plural dalliances)

  1. Playful flirtation; amorous play. [from 14th c.]
  2. A wasting of time in idleness or trifles. [from 16th c.]
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 2/4/1, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
      But, with a gesture, she put a period to this dalliance—one shouldn't palter so on an empty stomach, she might almost have said.
  3. A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit.

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