Conversation

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Conversation \Con`ver*sa"tion\, n. [OE. conversacio (in senses 1
     & 2), OF. conversacion, F. conversation, fr. L. conversatio
     frequent abode in a place, intercourse, LL. also, manner of
     life.]
     1. General course of conduct; behavior. [Archaic]
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              Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel.
                                                    --Philip. i.
                                                    27.
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     2. Familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association;
        close acquaintance. "Conversation with the best company."
        --Dryden.
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              I set down, out of long experience in business and
              much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent
              to this business.                     --Bacon.
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     3. Commerce; intercourse; traffic. [Obs.]
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              All traffic and mutual conversation.  --Hakluyt.
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     4. Colloquial discourse; oral interchange of sentiments and
        observations; informal dialogue.
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              The influence exercised by his [Johnson's]
              conversation was altogether without a parallel.
                                                    --Macaulay.
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     5. Sexual intercourse; as, criminal conversation.
  
     Syn: Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity;
          discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat.
  
     Usage: {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.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  conversation
       n : the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or
           information etc.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  69 Moby Thesaurus words for "conversation":
     ESP, accents, answer, chat, chatter, collegiality, colloquy,
     comment, commerce, communication, communion, community,
     confabulation, congress, connection, contact, converse,
     correspondence, dealing, dealings, debate, deliberation, dialogue,
     discourse, discussion, elocution, exchange, fellowship, gab,
     gossip, information, interaction, interchange, intercommunication,
     intercommunion, intercourse, interplay, language,
     linguistic intercourse, message, observation, oral communication,
     palaver, parley, parole, prattle, rapping, remark, repartee, reply,
     response, social activity, social intercourse, social relations,
     speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, talk, talking,
     telepathy, touch, traffic, truck, two-way communication,
     ventilation, words, yakkety-yak, yakking
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Conversation
     generally the goings out and in of social intercourse (Eph. 2:3;
     4:22; R.V., "manner of life"); one's deportment or course of
     life. This word is never used in Scripture in the sense of
     verbal communication from one to another (Ps. 50:23; Heb. 13:5).
     In Phil. 1:27 and 3:20, a different Greek word is used. It there
     means one's relations to a community as a citizen, i.e.,
     citizenship.
     

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  CONVERSATION, n.  A fair to the display of the minor mental
  commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of
  his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.