English

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Foreplay.

Etymology

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From fore- +‎ play.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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foreplay (uncountable)

  1. In human sexual behavior, the acts at the beginning of a sexual encounter that serve to build up sexual arousal.
    • 1972, Alex Comfort, The Joy of Sex, Crown, pages 215–216:
      Actually in quick undressing or actual lovemaking modern nylons usually get ruined, but if you keep your nails and fingers smooth taking them off gently makes good foreplay, along with mutual undressing generally.

Synonyms

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Translations

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See also

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Verb

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foreplay (third-person singular simple present foreplays, present participle foreplaying, simple past and past participle foreplayed)

  1. (intransitive) To engage in foreplay.
    • 2002, M. D. Bifford Debs, The Writer - Page 102:
      I decided, while we were foreplaying, that I must get a supply, just in case.
    • 2005, Charles E. Schwarz, The Lonely Detective Gets Nasty and Other Murder Mysteries - Page 65:
      We grabbed each other, roughly kissing and tossing covers and pillows about in our frantic lovemaking. We foreplayed and foreplayed, teased and teased again.
    • 2011, Katie MacAlister, It's All Greek to Me:
      While they were making love? It was true they weren't actually engaged in intercourse, but this certainly counted as foreplay. Iakovos stared down at her in complete disbelief. He'd never, ever had a woman fall asleep while he was foreplaying.

Further reading

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