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Dalliance

//ˈdæli.əns// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Playful flirtation; amorous play. countable, uncountable

    "As in the season of rutting (an uncouth phrase, by which the vulgar denote that gentle dalliance, which in the well-wooded forest of Hampshire, passes between lovers of the ferine kind),"

  2. 2
    playful behavior intended to arouse sexual interest wordnet
  3. 3
    An episode of dabbling. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working wordnet
  5. 5
    A wasting of time in idleness or trifles. countable, uncountable

    "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."

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  1. 6
    A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit. countable, uncountable

Etymology

From Middle English daliaunce et al., from dalien (“to exchange pleasantries, to chat; to flirt”), from Old French dalier, dailer. By surface analysis, dally + -ance.

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