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intimate. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
intimate, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
intimate in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin intimare (“to put or bring into, to impress, to make familiar”), from intimus (“inmost, innermost, most intimate”), superlative of intus (“within”), from in (“in”); see interior.
Pronunciation
Adjective, noun
Verb
Adjective
intimate (comparative more intimate, superlative most intimate)
- Closely acquainted; familiar.
an intimate friend
He and his sister deeply valued their intimate relationship as they didn't have much else to live for.
- Of or involved in a sexual relationship.
She enjoyed some intimate time alone with her husband.
2011 October 28, Kevin Underhill, “Shape-Shifting Donkey Prostitute Strikes Again”, in Lowering the Bar, archived from the original on 16 December 2022:The man, who had been arrested for being intimate with a donkey, admitted the conduct in question but claimed that the donkey had not been a donkey when he met her at a nightclub last Saturday night, but rather a prostitute.
- Personal; private.
an intimate setting
- Pertaining to details that require great familiarity to know.
2015, Slawomir Pikula, Joanna Bandorowicz-Pikula, Patrick Groves, “NMR of lipids”, in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, volume 44, Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISSN, page 391:Grélard et al.87 determined the intimate structure of pseudoviral particles of hepatitis B subvirus using solid-state NMR, light scattering, and cryo-electron microscopy.
- Very finely mixed.
Black powder consists of an intimate mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur.
Derived terms
Translations
closely acquainted; familiar
- Bulgarian: интимен (bg) (intimen)
- Catalan: íntim
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
- Czech: důvěrný
- Dutch: innig (nl)
- Esperanto: intima (eo)
- Estonian: lähedane (et)
- Finnish: tuttu (fi)
- French: intime (fr)
- Galician: íntimo
- German: vertraut (de), innig (de)
- Greek: στενός (el) (stenós), οικείος (el) (oikeíos)
- Hungarian: meghitt (hu), közeli (hu)
- Irish: caidreamhach
- Italian: stretto (it), intimo (it)
- Korean: 친(親)하다 (ko) (chinhada), 친밀(親密)하다 (ko) (chinmilhada) (typically not of people)
- Latvian: intīms, tuvs
- Maori: taupiri, kauawhiawhi (of a building), takapui
- Mari:
- Eastern Mari: лишыл (ĺišyl)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: intim, fortrolig (no)
- Persian: صَمیمی (fa) (samimi)
- Polish: bliski (pl)
- Portuguese: íntimo (pt)
- Romanian: intim (ro)
- Russian: бли́зкий (ru) (blízkij)
- Spanish: íntimo (es)
- Swedish: intim (sv)
- Thai: สนิท (th) (sà-nìt)
- Ukrainian: інти́мний (intýmnyj), близьки́й (uk) (blyzʹkýj)
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of or involved in a sexual relationship
personal, private
- Bulgarian: личен (bg) (ličen), съкровен (bg) (sǎkroven)
- Catalan: íntim
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
- Esperanto: intima (eo)
- Estonian: isiklik (et)
- Finnish: henkilökohtainen (fi)
- Galician: íntimo
- Greek: ιδιωτικός (el) (idiotikós), προσωπικός (el) (prosopikós)
- Hungarian: bizalmas (hu)
- Italian: privato (it), proprio (it), personale (it)
- Latvian: intīms, personisks
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: intim, privat, personlig (no)
- Polish: osobisty (pl), intymny (pl)
- Portuguese: íntimo (pt), pessoal (pt)
- Romanian: intim (ro), personal (ro)
- Russian: ли́чный (ru) (líčnyj)
- Spanish: íntimo (es)
- Swedish: intim (sv)
- Thai: ส่วนตัว (th) (sùuan-dtuua)
- Ukrainian: інти́мний (intýmnyj)
- Yiddish: אינטים (intim)
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Noun
intimate (plural intimates)
- A very close friend.
- Synonyms: bosom buddy, bosom friend, cater-cousin
Only a couple of intimates had ever read his writing.
- (in the plural intimates) Women's underwear, sleepwear, or lingerie, especially offered for sale in a store.
- Synonym: intimate apparel
You'll find bras and panties in the intimates section upstairs.
Translations
intimates: women's underwear, sleepwear or lingerie
Verb
intimate (third-person singular simple present intimates, present participle intimating, simple past and past participle intimated)
- (transitive, intransitive) To suggest or disclose (something) discreetly.
He intimated that we should leave before the argument escalated.
1878, Henry James, An International Episode:One of our friends, nevertheless—the younger one—intimated that he felt a disposition to interrupt a few of these soft familiarities; but his companion observed, pertinently enough, that he had better be careful.
1936, Dale Carnegie, “Part 4, Chapter 3. TALK ABOUT YOUR OWN MISTAKES FIRST”, in How to Win Friends and Influence People, page 223: The Kaiser beamed. Von Bulow had praised him. Von Bulow had exalted him and humbled himself. The Kaiser could forgive anything after that. "Haven't I always told you," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "that we complete one another famously? We should stick together, and we will!"
[...]
Von Bulow saved himself in time—but, canny diplomat that he was, he nevertheless had made one error: he should have begun by talking about his own shortcomings and Wilhelm's superiority—not by intimating that the Kaiser was a half-wit in need of a guardian.
- (transitive, India) To notify.
I will intimate you when the details are available.
Translations
To suggest or disclose discreetly
Related terms
Further reading
- “intimate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “intimate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Esperanto
Adverb
intimate
- present adverbial passive participle of intimi
Italian
Etymology 1
Verb
intimate
- inflection of intimare:
- second-person plural present indicative
- second-person plural imperative
Etymology 2
Participle
intimate f pl
- feminine plural of intimato
Anagrams
Latin
Verb
intimāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of intimō
Spanish
Verb
intimate
- second-person singular voseo imperative of intimar combined with te