kiss
/kɪs/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms kisses kissing kissed kist
- verb (transitive) To touch with the lips or press the lips against, usually to show love or affection or passion, or as part of a greeting.
- verb (ambitransitive) To (cause to) touch lightly or slightly; to come into contact. “The nearside of the car just kissed a parked truck as he took the corner at high speed.”
- verb (reciprocal) Of two or more people, to touch each other's lips together, usually to express love or affection or passion.
- verb (transitive, archaic) To treat with fondness.
- noun A touch with the lips, usually to express love or affection, or as a greeting.
- noun An 'X' mark placed at the end of a letter or other type of message, signifying the bestowal of a kiss from the sender to the receiver.
- noun A type of filled chocolate candy, shaped as if someone had kissed the top. See Hershey's Kisses.
- noun (astronomy) The alignment of two bodies in the solar system such that they have the same longitude when seen from Earth; conjunction.
- noun (aviation) A low-speed mid-air collision between the envelopes of two hot air balloons, generally causing no damage or injury.
- proper noun A surname from Hungarian.
Synonyms
buss goozer lallygag lips lock lips osculate pash play tonsil hockey snog suck face swap spit smooch lip clap osculation sugar Yankee dime candy kiss
Etymology
From Middle English kissen, kussen, from Old English cyssan (“to kiss”), from Proto-West Germanic *kussijan, from Proto-Germanic *kussijaną (“to kiss”).
Cognates include Saterland Frisian küsje, Dutch kussen, German Low German küssen, German küssen, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål kysse, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish kyssa. Compare Proto-Indo-European *ku-, *kus- (probably imitative), with descendants including Ancient Greek κύσσω (kússō), poetic form of κύσω (kúsō, “to kiss”), and Hittite [script needed] (kuwassanzi, “they kiss”).
From Middle English kis, kys, kus, forms of cos influenced by kissen, from Old English coss, from Proto-West Germanic *koss, from Proto-Germanic *kussaz.
* As a Hungarian surname, from Kiss.
* As an English surname of Norman origin, from Anglo-Norman cuisse (“thigh”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To salute with the lips, as a mark of affection, reverence, submission, forgiveness, etc. He . . . kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack, That at the parting all the church echoed. Shak.
- verb To touch gently, as if fondly or caressingly.
- verb To make or give salutation with the lips in token of love, respect, etc.; as, kiss and make friends.
- verb To meet; to come in contact; to touch fondly.
Etymology [OE. kissen, cussen, AS. cyssan, fr. coss a kiss; of uncertain origin; akin to D. kus, G. kuss, Icel. koss.]
Etymology [OE. kiss, derived under the influence of the verb from the older form coss, AS. coss. See Kiss, v.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “kiss”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details