Contrectation

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The initial stage of the sexual act involving manual contact and tumescence; sexual foreplay. countable, uncountable

    "Most animals have no desire for contrectation. In man the impulse of contrectation is the more important. If the individual practises total abstinence, i. e., if he abstains even from the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, then ..."

  2. 2
    A touching or handling; manipulation. countable, obsolete, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
foreplayforeplay

Example

More examples

"Most animals have no desire for contrectation. In man the impulse of contrectation is the more important. If the individual practises total abstinence, i. e., if he abstains even from the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, then ..."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin contrectātio, from contrectō (“to touch”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.