| English Dictionary |
INTIMATE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does intimate mean?
• INTIMATE (noun)
The noun INTIMATE has 1 sense:
1. someone to whom private matters are confided
Familiarity information: INTIMATE used as a noun is very rare.
• INTIMATE (adjective)
The adjective INTIMATE has 8 senses:
1. marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
2. concerning things deeply private and personal
3. having or fostering a warm or friendly and informal atmosphere
4. having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship
5. used euphemistically to refer to the genitals
6. involved in a sexual relationship
7. innermost or essential
8. thoroughly acquainted through study or experience
Familiarity information: INTIMATE used as an adjective is common.
• INTIMATE (verb)
The verb INTIMATE has 2 senses:
1. give to understand
2. imply as a possibility
Familiarity information: INTIMATE used as a verb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Someone to whom private matters are confided
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
confidant; intimate
Hypernyms ("intimate" is a kind of...):
friend (a person you know well and regard with affection and trust)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intimate"):
confidante (a female confidant)
repository; secretary (a person to whom a secret is entrusted)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
Context example:
intimate relations between economics, politics, and legal principles
Similar:
close (close in relevance or relationship)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Concerning things deeply private and personal
Synonyms:
intimate; private
Context example:
private family matters
Similar:
personal (concerning or affecting a particular person or his or her private life and personality)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having or fostering a warm or friendly and informal atmosphere
Synonyms:
Context example:
the small room was cozy and intimate
Similar:
friendly (characteristic of or befitting a friend)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship
Synonyms:
familiar; intimate
Context example:
pretending she is on an intimate footing with those she slanders
Similar:
close (close in relevance or relationship)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Used euphemistically to refer to the genitals
Context example:
he touched her intimate parts
Similar:
sexual (having or involving sex)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Involved in a sexual relationship
Synonyms:
intimate; sexual
Context example:
she had been intimate with many men
Similar:
sexy (marked by or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Innermost or essential
Synonyms:
Context example:
the intimate structure of matter
Similar:
intrinsic; intrinsical (belonging to a thing by its very nature)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Thoroughly acquainted through study or experience
Synonyms:
intimate; knowledgeable; versed
Context example:
knowledgeable about the technique of painting
Similar:
experienced; experient (having experience; having knowledge or skill from observation or participation)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it intimates Past simple: intimated
Past participle: intimated
-ing form: intimating
Sense 1
Meaning:
Give to understand
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Synonyms:
adumbrate; insinuate; intimate
Context example:
I insinuated that I did not like his wife
Hypernyms (to "intimate" is one way to...):
hint; suggest (drop a hint; intimate by a hint)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Sentence example:
They intimate that there was a traffic accident
Derivation:
intimation (a slight suggestion or vague understanding)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Imply as a possibility
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Synonyms:
intimate; suggest
Context example:
The evidence suggests a need for more clarification
Hypernyms (to "intimate" is one way to...):
imply (suggest as a logically necessary consequence; in logic)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "intimate"):
make out (imply or suggest)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Derivation:
intimation (a slight suggestion or vague understanding)
intimation (an indirect suggestion)
Context examples
Mr. Briggs intimates that the answer to his application was not from Mr. Rochester, but from a lady: it is signed 'Alice Fairfax.'
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
If I ain't been azackly as intimate with you.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the Bennets were particularly intimate.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
James's coming (my eldest brother) is quite delightful—and especially as it turns out that the very family we are just got so intimate with are his intimate friends already.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Mrs. Fraser has been my intimate friend for years.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot's death, and they were still near neighbours and intimate friends, and one remained a widower, the other a widow.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
It was of a man, who had murdered one of that gentleman’s intimate acquaintance.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The episode was tacitly and secretly intimate.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
During my long and intimate acquaintance with Mr. Sherlock Holmes I had never heard him refer to his relations, and hardly ever to his own early life.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A standard survey tool for assessing the resolution of conflict between intimate partners.
(Conflicts Tactics Scale 2, NCI Thesaurus)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Someone's end, someone's beginning" (Azerbaijani proverb)
"Shall the sheep go astray, they will be led by the ill goat." (Arabic proverb)
"An understanding person needs only half a word." (Dutch proverb)