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INTIMACY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Close or warm friendship
Example:
the absence of fences created a mysterious intimacy in which no one knew privacy
Synonyms:
closeness; familiarity; intimacy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("intimacy" is a kind of...):
friendliness (a friendly disposition)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A feeling of being intimate and belonging together
Example:
their closeness grew as the night wore on
Synonyms:
closeness; intimacy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("intimacy" is a kind of...):
belonging (happiness felt in a secure relationship)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intimacy"):
togetherness (affectionate closeness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
Synonyms:
affair; affaire; amour; intimacy; involvement; liaison
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("intimacy" is a kind of...):
sexual relationship (a relationship involving sexual intimacy)
Context examples:
The lawyer liked this letter well enough; it put a better colour on the intimacy than he had looked for; and he blamed himself for some of his past suspicions.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
This gave them time for each other that they had never had before, and their intimacy ripened fast.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Then, by observation, whenever opportunity offered, by study of action, speech, and the very intonations of the voice, he slowly learned the intimacy and the degree of favour they enjoyed with the master.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
As to Mr. St John, the intimacy which had arisen so naturally and rapidly between me and his sisters did not extend to him.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I had determined to give you notice when we reached Brighton; but as we drove from the village that day, I caught a glimpse of a lady passing in a phaeton between whom and Lord Avon I was well aware there was a close intimacy, although I was not certain that she was actually his wife.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They were of the same large type as Thornton, living close to the earth, thinking simply and seeing clearly; and ere they swung the raft into the big eddy by the saw-mill at Dawson, they understood Buck and his ways, and did not insist upon an intimacy such as obtained with Skeet and Nig.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
It can be imagined that my close intimacy with Sherlock Holmes had interested me deeply in crime, and that after his disappearance I never failed to read with care the various problems which came before the public.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice—that of Mr. Hatherley’s thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton’s madness.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A Mrs. Elton would be an excuse for any change of intercourse; former intimacy might sink without remark.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I look upon her intimacy with those two sisters as the greatest misfortune of her life and mine.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
