Crossword clues for continence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Continence \Con"ti*nence\, Continency \Con"ti*nen*cy\, n. [F. continence, L. continentia. See Continent, and cf. Countenance.]
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Self-restraint; self-command.
He knew what to say; he knew also, when to leave off, -- a continence which is practiced by few writers.
--Dryden. -
The restraint which a person imposes upon his desires and passions; the act or power of refraining from indulgence of the sexual appetite, esp. from unlawful indulgence; sometimes, moderation in sexual indulgence.
If they [the unmarried and widows] have not continency, let them marry.
--1 Cor. vii. 9 (Rev. Ver. ).Chastity is either abstinence or continence: abstinence is that of virgins or widows; continence, that of married persons.
--Jer. Taylor. Uninterrupted course; continuity. [Obs.]
--Ayliffe.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., "self-restraint," from Old French continence (14c.), from Latin continentia "a holding back, repression," from continent-, present participle stem of continere (see continent). Especially of sexual desire from late 14c.; of the body's eliminatory functions, from 1915. Related: Continency.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The voluntary control of urination and defecation. 2 moderation or self-restraint, especially in sexual activity; abstinence. 3 Uninterrupted course; continuity.
WordNet
n. the exercise of self constraint in sexual matters [syn: continency]
voluntary control over urinary and fecal discharge
Wikipedia
Continence may refer to:
- Fecal incontinence, the inability to control one's bowels
- Incontinence (philosophy), a lack of self-control (Greek: ἀκρασία)
- Sexual abstinence as a state of life
- Coitus reservatus as sexual continence.
- Urinary incontinence, the involuntary excretion of urine
Usage examples of "continence".
I beg to entertain very strong doubts as to the possibility of the general exercise of that virtue which we call continence.
The Imagist photoplay will put discipline into the inner ranks of the enlightened and remind the sculptors, painters, and architects of the movies that there is a continence even beyond sculpture and that seas of realism may not have the power of a little well-considered elimination.
To distract her mind from these thoughts, I made her eat by the example I set, and she drank the excellent claret with as much pleasure as I, not thinking that as she was not used to it it would put her in a frame of mind not favourable to continence.
Donna Ignazia, who was delighted with my continence during the day, and apparently afraid of its not lasting, begged me to invite her cousin to supper.
What reason, then, is there for our consuming time in those exhortations by which we seek to animate the baptized, either to virginal chastity, or vidual continence, or matrimonial fidelity, when we have so much more simple and compendious a method of deliverance from sin, by persuading those who are fresh from baptism to put an end to their lives, and so pass to their Lord pure and well-conditioned?
Female continence over a prolonged period was unfavorably viewed since women were expected to bear as many children as possible to replace a population constantly lost to the Mil or the exigencies of Patrol.
Maybe it had been something the body had created in the mind, just for its own survival, because with her perhaps a sexual continence would have been a progressive thing, parching and drying her, month by month, until all need would have been prematurely ended.
People say well, if they don't plan their prodgies a high enough proportion will be sickly to make them non-competitive in the long run, and what's more they'll tend either to bankrupt themselves with too many children or else they'll get so many psychological hangups from enforced continence they'll handicap themselves in later life.