Find the word definition

Crossword clues for promiscuous

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
promiscuous
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Promiscuous men are rarely criticized as severely as promiscuous women.
▪ Rumors spread through the school that Jill was promiscuous.
▪ The survey found that single men aged 18--35 were more promiscuous than any other social group.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ I remain, firmly in defence of happily promiscuous hominids.
▪ Just by definition, they're going to be promiscuous.
▪ Men are promiscuous opportunists at heart and in their fantasies.
▪ Some have attempted suicide; others have abused drugs or been sexually promiscuous.
▪ The promiscuous princess quickly becomes a pawn.
▪ The most promiscuous species end up a collage of different handicaps, ornaments, and gaudy blotches.
▪ There are usually more females than males present on an infested person and the males are relatively promiscuous, mating frequently.
▪ This sounds compelling and attractive but it can be promiscuous as well.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Promiscuous

Promiscuous \Pro*mis"cu*ous\, a. [L. promiscuus; pro before, in place of, for + miscere to mix. See Mix. ]

  1. Consisting of individuals united in a body or mass without order; mingled; confused; undistinguished; as, a promiscuous crowd or mass.

    A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot.
    --Pope.

  2. Distributed or applied without order or discrimination; not restricted to an individual; common; indiscriminate; as, promiscuous love or intercourse.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
promiscuous

c.1600, people or things, "mingled confusedly, grouped together without order, consisting of a disorderly mix; indiscriminate," from Latin promiscuus "mixed, indiscriminate, in common, without distinction," from pro- "forward" (see pro-) + miscere "to mix" (see mix (v.)). Meaning "indiscriminate in sexual relations" recorded by 1857, from promiscuity. The Latin adjective was used with conubia (such as between patricians and plebeians). Related: Promiscuously.

Wiktionary
promiscuous

a. 1 Made up of various disparate elements mixed together; of disorderly composition. 2 Made without careful choice; indiscriminate. 3 indiscriminate in choice of sexual partners. 4 (context networking English) The mode in which a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network%20card gathers all network traffic instead of getting only the traffic intended for it.

WordNet
promiscuous
  1. adj. not selective of a single class or person; "Clinton was criticized for his promiscuous solicitation of campaign money"

  2. casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior; "her easy virtue"; "he was told to avoid loose (or light) women"; "wanton behavior" [syn: easy, light, loose, sluttish, wanton]

Wikipedia
Promiscuous (disambiguation)

Promiscuous may refer to behavior that is indiscriminate. While mainly used in social context to refer to sexual behavior, it is also used in a technical sense in a number of fields such as data flow and control, signalling, connectivity, and a range of sciences:

  • Promiscuity, promiscuous sexual behaviour
  • Promiscuous (song), a 2006 song by Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland (also known as both "Promiscuous Girl" and/or "Promiscuous Boy")
  • Promiscuous mode, a configuration where a network card passes all traffic it receives to the CPU, rather than just the packets addressed to it
  • Promiscuous Judge, a type of judicial officer in Colombia
  • Enzyme promiscuity, the catalysis of more than one reaction by an enzyme
Promiscuous (song)

"Promiscuous" is a song by Canadian singer Nelly Furtado from her third studio album Loose (2006), featuring Timbaland. The song was written by Anthony Motz, along with Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, Furtado and Nate "Danja" Hills. The song's lyrics, which were penned by Furtado and Clayton, feature a conversation between a man and woman who call each other promiscuous. The overtly-sexual song was released as the lead single from the album in North America in early 2006, and as the second single elsewhere in mid-2006 except in Latin America, where the single was released as the third single in late 2006.

The song was well received by music critics, with some critics calling it the highlight of the album. "Promiscuous" was an international success and it had become Furtado's first number-one single in the US. It is the first number one by a Canadian female artist since 1998's " I'm Your Angel" by R. Kelly and Céline Dion on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song also topped the chart in New Zealand and peaked within the top ten on many charts across Europe.

The accompanying music video was directed by Little X, and features scenes of Furtado and Timbaland, in what Furtado describes as a "verbal Ping-Pong game". Cameo appearances are made by Keri Hilson, Justin Timberlake, and Bria Myles.

The song won the " Best Pop Single of the Year" at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards and received a nomination for the " Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" at the 49th Grammy Awards, losing to Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder's " For Once in My Life".

Usage examples of "promiscuous".

The extreme devastation, and promiscuous massacre, of a savage war, were justified, in the eyes of the emperor, and perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of retaliation: and such was the discipline of the Romans, and the consternation of the enemy, that Valentinian repassed the Danube without the loss of a single man.

The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude.

Many thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death or at least of exile.

Alexander, when the inhuman Maximin discharged his fury on the favorites and servants of his unfortunate benefactor, a great number of Christians of every rank and of both sexes, were involved in the promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, has improperly received the name of Persecution.

The soldiers, the citizens, their wives, their children, all who had not time to escape through the opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors in a promiscuous massacre.

The houses of the Tartars are no more than small tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and dirty habitation, for the promiscuous youth of both sexes.

That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the Barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars.

At the same hour, and as if by a common signal, the cities of Italy were polluted by the same horrid scenes of universal massacre and pillage, which involved, in promiscuous destruction, the families and fortunes of the Barbarians.

The main body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle or dependent plebeians.

The despair of the citizens was sometimes converted into fury: and whenever the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the helpless.

Theophilus escaped, but the promiscuous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners was slaughtered without pity in the streets of Constantinople.

Danube was deeply frozen: Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his standard was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians.

The college of princes and prelates purged themselves of a promiscuous multitude: they reduced to four representative votes the long series of independent counts, and excluded the nobles or equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets, had appeared on horseback in the field of election.

They successively rushed on the promiscuous multitude, insufficiently provided with arms, and already vanquished by sorrow and fatigue.

If the sectaries of the metropolis were soon mingled with the promiscuous mass, those of the country struck a deep root in a foreign soil.