The Collaborative International Dictionary
Carnal \Car"nal\, a. [L. carnalis, fr. caro, carnis, flesh; akin to Gr. ?, Skr. kravya; cf. F. charnel, Of. also carnel. Cf. Charnel.]
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Of or pertaining to the body or its appetites; animal; fleshly; sensual; given to sensual indulgence; lustful; human or worldly as opposed to spiritual.
For ye are yet carnal.
--1 Cor. iii. 3.Not sunk in carnal pleasure.
--MiltonCarnal desires after miracles.
--Trench. -
Flesh-devouring; cruel; ravenous; bloody. [Obs.]
This carnal cur Preys on the issue of his mother's body.
--Shak.Carnal knowledge, sexual intercourse; -- used especially of an unlawful act on the part of the man.
Wiktionary
n. (context archaic English) sexual intercourse.
WordNet
n. the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur [syn: sexual intercourse, intercourse, sex act, copulation, coitus, coition, sexual congress, congress, sexual relation, relation]
Wikipedia
Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse. The term derives from the Biblical usage of the verb know/knew, as in the King James Bible and other versions, a euphemism for sexual conduct. An example of this usage is in the first part of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, which describes how Adam and Eve created their first child: "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with [the help of] Jehovah." – Genesis 4:1.
Carnal Knowledge was a short-lived 1996 British television game show relating to sex. It was hosted by Maria McErlane and Graham Norton.
It was shown very late at night, appropriate to its explicit subject matter.
Usage examples of "carnal knowledge".
For a novice to have carnal knowledge of a monk, both of them under her care, in the monastery—.
But since this whole Grand-Tutor business has such a Founder's-Scroll air about it, maybe know should be understood in the Old-Syllabus sense of carnal knowledge.
A demographer argues that too much unlawful carnal knowledge is going on, with dire consequences.
Carlos trapped the young, curious mind within his own, sending image after image to it, bludgeoning it with sensations of power, exquisite lust, and the pure carnal knowledge of lying with a woman.
People said that it was Barnes who'd been playing sticky-finger and other things more drastic with Anna and that she'd really run away from him and it's him who doesn't want her back because there's a thing called carnal knowledge in the law.
Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent's life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows.
Yes, and because you were the first to have carnal knowledge of the child's mother, thought Darcourt.
I remember an acquaintance of mine literally foaming - there was a line of white between his lips - as he condemned a wretched youth to transportation for carnal knowledge of a fine bold up-standing wench: yet this same man was himself a smell-smock, a cold, determined lecher, a voluptuary, a libertine, a discreet frequenter of Mother Abbot's establishment in Dover Street.
The ancients believed that the male was spiritually incomplete until he had carnal knowledge of the sacred feminine.