Kissing
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The act of giving a kiss or making out. countable, uncountable
"There began to be some movement preparatory to the resumption of our journey, and, after many huggings and kissings, the family parted, and the wagon drove off[…]"
- 2 affectionate play (or foreplay without contact with the genital organs) wordnet
- 1 present participle and gerund of kiss form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 That kisses; engaged in a kiss or kissing. not-comparable
- 2 Just touching. not-comparable
Example
More examples"Not again! Look at those two kissing. They've really got the hots for each other. I can't watch this any more."
Etymology
From Middle English kissynge, cussinde, from Old English cyssende, from Proto-West Germanic *kussijandī, from Proto-Germanic *kussijandz, equivalent to kiss + -ing. Cognate with Saterland Frisian küsjend, Dutch kussend, German Low German küssend, German küssend, Swedish kyssande, Icelandic kyssandi.
From Middle English kissynge, kyssynge, kessinge, from Old English *cyssing, from Proto-West Germanic *kussīngu, equivalent to kiss + -ing. Cognate with Middle Dutch cussinge (whence Dutch kussing (“kissing”)), Middle Low German küssinge (“kissing”), Middle High German küssunge (“kissing”). Compare also Old English cossettung (“kissing”).
Related phrases
More for "kissing"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.