Kisses


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kiss

 (kĭs)
v. kissed, kiss·ing, kiss·es
v.tr.
1. To touch or caress with the lips as an expression of affection, greeting, respect, or amorousness.
2. To touch lightly or gently: flowers that were kissed by dew.
3. To strike lightly; brush against: barely kissed the other car with the bumper.
v.intr.
1. To engage in mutual touching or caressing with the lips.
2. To come into light contact.
n.
1. A caress or touch with the lips.
2. A slight or gentle touch.
3. A small piece of candy, especially of chocolate.
4. A drop cookie made of egg whites and sugar.
Phrasal Verbs:
kiss off Slang
1. To dismiss or reject.
2. To be forced to give up or regard as lost: He can kiss off that promotion.
3. To leave or disappear from notice: got bad press by telling the reporters to kiss off.
kiss up Slang
To behave obsequiously; fawn.
Idioms:
kiss ass Vulgar Slang
To act submissively or obsequiously in order to gain favor.
kiss goodbye
Informal To be forced to regard as lost, ruined, or hopeless: She can kiss her vacation plans goodbye.

[Middle English kissen, from Old English cyssan.]

kiss′a·ble adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Kisses

 

See Also: INSULTS

  1. Batted them [breast nipples] over and over with my tongue like gum —Joe Coomer
  2. Being kissed … was something done to her, like the shampoos her mother used to give her at the kitchen sink —John Updike
  3. He kissed her … his neck arching forward, hers backward, like a pair of swans —T. H. White
  4. Her lips grazed mine, cool, soft, and tremulous as the wings of a moth —Robert Traver
  5. His kiss dropped on her like a cold smooth pebble —Edith Wharton
  6. His [kisser’s mouth] mouth was as soft as a flower and his breath as sweet —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

    See Also: SOFTNESS

  7. It [kissing someone] was like putting your mouth against an automatic bank teller, where it swallows your credit card —John Updike
  8. Kissed (the children) with an official air, as if she were conferring an honor, pinning on her kisses like orders —Rebecca West
  9. Kisses are like confidences, one follows the other —Denis Diderot
  10. Kisses are like grains of gold or silver found upon the ground, of no value themselves, but precious as showing that a mine is near —George Villiers
  11. Kisses, like folks with diminutive souls, will manage to creep through the smallest of holes —J. G. Saxe
  12. Kisses … sticky like a child’s —Flannery O’Connor
  13. Kisses strong like wine —Algernon Charles Swinburne
  14. Kiss … felt like a drop of rain in the desert —John Updike
  15. Kissing a person who’s self-righteous and intolerant is like licking a mongoose’s ass —Tom Robbins
  16. Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray —Tom Robbins
  17. Kissing her lips was like kissing warm but uncooked liver —Stephen King
  18. Kissing her … .was like playing post office with a dead and rotting whale —Truman Capote
  19. Kissing him would be like kissing razor blades —David Brierly
  20. Kissing is a good deal like eating; there is not much fun when person is hungry in standing by, and seeing it done by another fellow —Josh Billings

    Portions originally in the Billings phonetic dialect: “iz hungry … it did bi anuther fellow.”

  21. A kiss without a mustache is like an egg without salt —Spanish proverb
  22. Moved her head and face about under the kisses as if they were small attacking waves —Doris Lessing
  23. One more such kiss and I am ready to be roasted upon a slow fire like any chicken or duckling —Delmore Schwartz
  24. Pecks like chicken scratchings —Mary Morris
  25. She dug her lips into my mouth like tiger’s claws —Jaroslav Seifert
  26. She kissed me as moistly as a little girl —John Braine
  27. She took kisses like so many coats of paint —Lawrence Durrell
  28. They kissed like two old people going to bed after the clock has been wound and the cat put out —Derek Lambert
  29. To kiss her would be like a Becket play to a college student: She would study it, dissect it, analyze it, appraise it and inject it with the serum of significance, until at last she transformed the simple touching of four lips into a Rosetta Stone that would give meaning to her life —Peter Benchley
  30. When she kissed him, he melted like a lump of milk chocolate —Marge Piercy
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
'I will have ten kisses from the Princess,' answered the Swineherd.
'Ask him whether he will take ten kisses from my ladies-in-waiting.'
'Ten kisses from the Princess, or else I keep my pot.'
And the ladies-in-waiting placed themselves in front and then spread out their dresses; so the Swineherd got his ten kisses, and she got the pot.
'He wants a hundred kisses from the Princess,' said the lady-in-waiting who had gone down to ask him.
It has been said by them of old time, and our fathers have told us, that the kiss of first love, the first kiss of the first woman we love, is beyond all kisses sweet; and true it is.
"I will have ten kisses from the Princess," said the swineherd.
"Ask him if he will have ten kisses from the ladies of my court."
"Ten kisses from the Princess, or I keep the kitchen-pot myself."
And the court-ladies placed themselves in front of her, and spread out their dresses--the swineherd got ten kisses, and the Princess--the kitchen-pot.
Go in and ask him the price of the instrument; but mind, he shall have no more kisses!"
And with fury, as it were with passion, the murderer falls on the body, and drags it and hacks at it; so he covered her face and shoulders with kisses. She held his hand, and did not stir.