Dalliance
//ˈdæli.əns// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 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 playful behavior intended to arouse sexual interest wordnet
- 3 An episode of dabbling. countable, uncountable
- 4 the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working wordnet
- 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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- 6 A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"While Tom puttered about with his ruffles and dalliance, a musket ball was flying towards his forehead."
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.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.