Word.ws English Dictionary

dalliance

/ˈdælɪəns/US/ˈdæli.əns/

dalliance noun: playful flirtation; amorous play.

Noun

dalliance (countable and uncountable, plural dalliances)

  1. Playful flirtation; amorous play.
    • 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),1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V
    • “Mark,” said Gabriel, sternly, “now you mind this: none of that dalliance-talk—that philandering way—that dandle-smack-and-coddle style of yours—about Miss Everdene. I don’t allow it. Do you hear?”1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    flirtation
  2. An episode of dabbling.
  3. A wasting of time in idleness or trifles.
    • He had passed the officer now. There was no necessity for dalliance. He pressed the accelerator down a trifle.1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mad King, A.C. McClurg, published 1926
    • Emerging, satiated, from the theatre, a public timepiece before a jeweller's shop confronted him with an unexpected dial and imminent perplexities. How was he to explain at home these hours of dalliance?1914, Booth Tarkington, Penrod, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC
  4. A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit.

dalliance meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Sanskrit

dalliance in Tamil

சரசம், பாலுறவுத் தொடர்பு, சுணக்கம், நேரம் கடத்துதல்

dalliance in Urdu

وقت گنوانے کا عمل

dalliance in Sanskrit

dalliance, amorous sport, sexual union, copulation
रमण ramaṇa

Examples of dalliance in a sentence

  • If this were the case, his return showed that the struggle had been unsuccessful, for Lily knew he was not the man to waste his time in an ineffectual sentimental dalliance.1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
  • 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.1922, Michael Arlen, “2/4/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

Synonyms of dalliance

All synonyms of dalliance

Forms of dalliance

pluraldalliances

Origin of dalliance

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.

Questions about dalliance

What does dalliance mean?
Dalliance means playful flirtation; amorous play.
What is dalliance in Tamil?
Dalliance in Tamil is சரசம், பாலுறவுத் தொடர்பு, சுணக்கம். See Dalliance meaning in Tamil.
How do you use dalliance in a sentence?
If this were the case, his return showed that the struggle had been unsuccessful, for Lily knew he was not the man to waste his time in an ineffectual sentimental dalliance.
What part of speech is dalliance?
Dalliance is a noun.
How do you pronounce dalliance?
Dalliance is pronounced /ˈdælɪəns/ (UK).
What is the plural of dalliance?
The plural of dalliance is dalliances.

Words near dalliance in the dictionary

  1. Dallasite
  2. Dallasites
  3. dalles
  4. Dalley
  5. Dalleys
  6. dalliance
  7. dalliances
  8. dalliaunce
  9. dalliaunces
  10. dallied
  11. dallier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dalliance (page history and authors); dalliance (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dalliance (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); रमण (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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