CONVERSATION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Conversation

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/kˌɑnvərsˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Conversation n.

1.

General course of conduct; behavior. (Archaic) "Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel."

2.

Familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; close acquaintance. "Conversation with the best company." "I set down, out of long experience in business and much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to this business."

3.

Commerce; intercourse; traffic. (Obs.) "All traffic and mutual conversation."

4.

Colloquial discourse; oral interchange of sentiments and observations; informal dialogue. "The influence exercised by his (Johnson's) conversation was altogether without a parallel."

5.

Sexual intercourse; as, criminal conversation.

Synonyms: Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity; discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat. Conversation, Talk. There is a looser sense of these words, in which they are synonymous; there is a stricter sense, in which they differ. Talk is usually broken, familiar, and versatile. Conversation is more continuous and sustained, and turns ordinarily upon topics or higher interest. Children talk to their parents or to their companions; men converse together in mixed assemblies. Dr. Johnson once remarked, of an evening spent in society, that there had been a great deal of talk, but no conversation.

See images of 'Conversation'

Etymology of 'Conversation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Conversation" Quotes from Famous Books

... Beer was provided—conversation was, for the next two hours, volcanic. When twelve o'clock struck in the church round the corner the meeting was ...

— Fortitude • Hugh Walpole

... writing guy decided we had monopolized the conversation long enough. So he seized the opportunity to exercise for our benefit the rare gift he was endowed with. He glanced patronizingly at the coal hulk, wrinkled his nose in disapprobation of her appearance, and delivered himself in an ...

— The Blood Ship • Norman Springer

... somewhere. The flood waters also appeared to be running down. Comforted by this intelligence Rachel piled on the fire nearly all the wood that remained to them. Then they sat down again side by side, and tried to continue their conversation. By degrees it drooped, however, and the end of it was that presently this pair were fast ...

— The Ghost Kings • H. Rider Haggard

... the bye, of her "old" face, her "old" eyes. She is, to be sure, in so far as mere numbers of years tell, an old woman. But I once heard her throw out, in the heat of conversation, the phrase, "a young old thing like me;" and I thought she touched ...

— My Friend Prospero • Henry Harland

... saying just now, Sir Gilbert," she murmured low, but with marked emphasis, after a few polite commonplaces of conversation had first passed between them; "and I want to ask you one question only about the matter. ARE you so sure as you seem of what you said this minute? Are you so sure that Mr. Guy Waring HAD sufficient reasons of his own for ...

— What's Bred In the Bone • Grant Allen

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