Dalliance

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈdalɪəns/
• US IPA: /ˈdæliÉ™ns/

Origin

From Middle English

Full definition of dalliance

Noun

1. Playful flirtation; amorous play. from 14th c.
• Fielding Tom Jones|V|xiAs 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. A wasting of time in idleness or trifles. from 16th c.
• 1922, w, “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days Chapter 2/4/1, 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.

Synonyms

• (a wasting of time) dawdling, idling, trifling
• (playful flirtation) flirtation
• (sexual relationship) affair

Related terms

• dallier
• dally
• dallying