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promiscuous. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
promiscuous, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
promiscuous in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin prōmiscuus (“mixed, not separated”), from prō (“forth”) + misceō (“mix”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
promiscuous (comparative more promiscuous, superlative most promiscuous)
- Made up of various disparate elements mixed together; of disorderly composition.
- Synonym: motley
1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 379-80:Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, / While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof.
1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch , volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 4:[T]hey had both been educated [...] on plans at once narrow and promiscuous, first in an English family and afterwards in a Swiss family at Lausanne, their bachelor uncle and guardian trying in this way to remedy the disadvantages of their orphaned condition.
- Made without careful choice; indiscriminate.
A sail caught by a promiscuous wind.
- Having many sexual partners, especially if indiscriminate in choosing said sexual partners.
2023, Parliament of Singapore, “Women’s Charter (Family Violence and Other Matters) (Amendment) Bill”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette, page 5:X spreads false rumours to third parties about X’s spouse being promiscuous. X’s spouse finds out about the rumours and is distressed. X has committed emotional or psychological abuse against X’s spouse.
- (networking) The mode in which an NIC gathers all network traffic instead of getting only the traffic intended for it.
Derived terms
Translations
made up of various disparate elements mixed together
made without careful choice; indiscriminate
indiscriminate in choice of sexual partners
being in a mode in which a NIC gathers all network traffic
See also
Further reading
- “promiscuous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “promiscuous”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “promiscuous”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.