conversation

plural conversations

1. countableuncountableExpression and exchange of individual ideas through talking with other people; also, a set instance or occasion of such talking.First known use 16th c.

   You need to improve conversation in foreign languages.

   5 more examples

   I had an interesting conversation with Nicolas yesterday about how much he's getting paid.

   Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

   M. Nioche pressed his finger-tips together and slowly raised his shoulders. “A little conversation!” / “Conversation—that’s it!” murmured Mademoiselle Noémie, who had caught the word. “The conversation of the best society.” / “Our French conversation is famous, you know,” M. Nioche ventured to continue.

   1876 June, Henry James, Jr., “The American”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XXXVII, number CCXXIV, Boston, Mass.: H[enry] O[scar] Houghton and Company; New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, chapter I, page 655, columns 1–2

   When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.[…]Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: intercourse, visit, banter, chat, chinwag, dialogue, discussion, interlocution

   1. uncountableDialogue or interaction regarding a topic.

      Synonyms: intercourse, visit, banter, chat, chinwag, dialogue, discussion, interlocution

2. countableuncountablefencingThe back-and-forth play of the blades in a bout.
3. countableuncountablecomputingThe protocol-based interaction between systems processing a transaction.First known use 20th c.
4. countableobsoleteuncountableInteraction; commerce or intercourse with other people; dealing with others.First known use 14th–18th c.

   Yt chaunſed thatt a whole yere they had their converſacion with the congregacion there / and taught moche people in ſomoche thatt the diſciples off Antioche wer the fyrſt that wer called Chriſten.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Actes off the Apostles xj:[26], folios clxxi, recto – clxxi, verso

5. archaiccountableuncountableBehaviour, the way one conducts oneself; a person's way of life.First known use 14th c.

   I have desired him to inquire after Lovelace's life and conversation in town.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 13:5

   There are many that take no heed what happeneth to others by bad conversation, and therefore overthrow themselves in the same manner through their own fault, not foreseeing dangers manifest.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

6. countableobsoleteuncountableSexual intercourse.First known use 16th–19th c.

   criminal conversation

   2 more examples

   Ariadne[…]quitted her Lover Theseus, for the tumultuous Conversation of Bacchus.

   1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury

   Our travellers had happened to take up their residence at a house of exceeding good repute, whither Irish ladies of strict virtue, and many northern lasses of the same predicament, were accustomed to resort in their way to Bath. The landlady therefore would by no means have admitted any conversation of a disreputable kind to pass under her roof. Indeed, so foul and contagious are all such proceedings, that they contaminate the very innocent scenes where they are committed, and give the name of a bad house, or of a house of ill repute, to all those where they are suffered to be carried on.

   Synonyms: aphrodisia, carnal knowledge, coitus, coition, commerce, commixtion, congress, conjunction

7. countableobsoleteuncountableEngagement with a specific subject, idea, field of study etc.First known use 16th–18th c.

   So grosse is our conuersation, and dull is our apprehension: while mortall Sense, in vs, ruleth the common wealth of our litle world.

   1570, John Dee, in H. Billingsley (trans.) Euclid, Elements of Geometry, Preface

   Synonyms: understanding, familiarity

8. archaiccountableuncountableA kind of confectionery lozenge bearing a message on its surface.

present singular third person conversations · participle present conversationing · participle past conversationed · past conversationed

1. ambitransitivenonstandardTo engage in conversation (with).

   After all this conversationing, Scottie, my usual dance partner, was getting antsy and wanted to dance.

   2002, Georgie Nickell, I Only Smoke on Thursdays

   2 more examples

   Gone now are the "high-minded" style, the "adapted from literature" feel, the voice-over narration, and the abstract conversationing about ideas, values...

   1983, James Frederick Mason, Hélène Joséphine Harvitt, The French review

   ...he has breakfasted me, dined me, conversationed me, absolutely caressed me. He has been really most kind and paternal...

   1989, Robert L Gale, A Henry James encyclopedia