Fornication

5 definitions found

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

  Fornication \For`ni*ca"tion\, n. [F. fornication, L.
     fornicatio.]
     1. Unlawful sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried
        person; the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between
        a man and a woman as does not by law amount to adultery.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     Note: In England, the offense, though cognizable in the
           ecclesiastical courts, was not at common law subject to
           secular prosecution. In the United States it is
           indictable in some States at common law, in others only
           by statute. --Whartyon.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Script.)
        (a) Adultery.
        (b) Incest.
        (c) Idolatry.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fornication
       n 1: voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to
            each other
       2: extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes
          with marriage relations; "adultery is often cited as
          grounds for divorce" [syn: {adultery}, {criminal
          conversation}]

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

  54 Moby Thesaurus words for "fornication":
     act of love, adultery, aphrodisia, ass, balling, carnal knowledge,
     climax, cohabitation, coition, coitus, coitus interruptus,
     commerce, concubinage, congress, connection, copula, copulation,
     coupling, criminal conversation, cuckoldry, diddling,
     extracurricular sex, extramarital relations, free love,
     free-lovism, incest, intercourse, intimacy, lovemaking,
     making it with, marital relations, marriage act, mating, meat,
     onanism, orgasm, ovum, pareunia, premarital relations,
     premarital sex, procreation, relations, screwing, sex, sex act,
     sexual climax, sexual commerce, sexual congress,
     sexual intercourse, sexual relations, sexual union, sleeping with,
     sperm, venery
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Fornication
     in every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law
     (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16).
     (See {ADULTERY}.)
     
       But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in
     its ordinary sense. It frequently means a forsaking of God or a
     following after idols (Isa. 1:2; Jer. 2:20; Ezek. 16; Hos. 1:2;
     2:1-5; Jer. 3:8,9).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  FORNICATION, crim. law. The unlawful carnal knowledge of an unmarried person 
  with another, whether the latter be married or unmarried. When the party is 
  married, the offence, as to him or her, is known by the name of adultery. 
  (q.v.) Fornication is, however, included in every case of adultery, as a 
  larceny is included in robbery. 2 Hale's P. C. 302.