Search the Dictionary

To join in a conversation; to express assent; -- followed by in or in with. [Colloq.]

ent, where guests are supplied with coffee and other refreshments, and where men meet for conversation. The coffeehouse must not be dismissed with a cursory mention. It might indeed, at that time, have been not improperly called a most important political institution . . . The coffeehouses were the chief organs through…

Pertaining to, or used in, conversation, esp. common and familiar conversation; conversational; hence, unstudied; informal; as, colloquial intercourse; colloquial phrases; a colloquial style. -- Col*lo"qui*al*ly, adv. His [Johnson's] colloquial talents were, indeed, of the highest order. Macaulay.

Mutual discourse of two or more persons; conference; conversation. They went to Worms, to the colloquy there about religion. A. Wood.

Communion; sympathetic intercourse or conversation between friends. For days of happy commune dead. Tennyson.

Familiar talk or conversation. [Colloq.]

Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, as fire in winter. Burton.

The act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views. Nor with such free and friendly conference As he hath used of old. Shak.

Private conversation; (pl.) secrets shared; as, there were confidences between them. Sir, I desire some confidence with you. Shak. Confidence game, any swindling operation in which advantage is taken of the confidence reposed by the victim in the swindler. -- Confidence man, a swindler. -- To take into one's confiden…

eviated, as a word or phrase; -- as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.

Qualified for conversation; disposed to converse; sociable; free in discourse. While young, humane, conversable, and kind. Cowper.

A meeting or assembly for conversation, particularly on literary or scientific subjects. Gray. These conversazioni [at Florence] resemble our card assemblies. A. Drummond.

Familiar discourse; free interchange of thoughts or views; conversation; chat. Formed by thy converse happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe. Pope.

One who engages in conversation.

o encounter; to meet; to have to do with. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e'er my conversation coped withal. Shak.

Free conversation; friendly chat. [Scot.] What is crack in English . . . Acrack . . . a chat with a good, kindly human heart in it. P. P. Alexander.

n action or suit instituted to secure conviction and punishment for a crime. -- Criminal conversation (Law), unlawful intercourse with a married woman; adultery; -- usually abbreviated, crim. con. -- Criminal law, the law which relates to crimes.

A conversational game, in which questions and answers are made so as to involve ludicrous combinations of ideas. Pepys. To be at cross-purposes, to misunderstand or to act counter to one another without intending it; -- said of persons.

. 11. Bunyan has told us . . . that in New England his dream was the daily subject of the conversation of thousands. Macaulay.

One of an ancient sect of philosophers, who cultivated learned conversation at meals.