| 释义 |
▪ I. sex, n.|sɛks|
Also 6–7 sexe, (6 seex, 7 pl. sexe, 8 poss. sexe's).
[ad. L. sexus (u-stem), whence also F. sexe (12th c.), Sp., Pg. sexo, It. sesso.
Latin had also a form secus neut. (indeclinable).]
1. a. Either of the two divisions of organic beings distinguished as male and female respectively; the males or the females (of a species, etc., esp. of the human race) viewed collectively.
1382Wyclif Gen. vi. 19 Of alle thingis hauynge sowle of ony flehs, two thow shalt brynge into the ark, that maal sex and femaal lyuen with thee. 1532More Confut. Tindale ii. 152, I had as leue he bare them both a bare cheryte, as wyth the frayle feminyne sexe fall to far in loue. 1559J. Aylmer Harborowe E 4 b, Neither of them debarred the heires female..as though it had ben..vnnatural for that sexe to gouern. 1576Gascoigne Philomene xcviii, I speake against my sex. a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1912) 158 The sexe of womankind of all other is most bound to have regardfull eie to mens judgements. 1600Nashe Summer's Last Will F 3 b, A woman they imagine her to be, Because that sexe keepes nothing close they heare. 1615Crooke Body of Man 274 If wee respect the..conformation of both the Sexes, the Male is sooner perfected..in the wombe. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 19 Both sexe goe naked. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 822 To add what wants In Femal Sex. 1671― Samson 774 It was a weakness In me, but incident to all our sex. 1679Dryden Troilus & Cr. i. ii, A strange dissembling sex we women are. 1711Addison Spect. No. 10 ⁋6 Their Amusements..are more adapted to the Sex than to the Species. 1730Swift Let. to Mrs. Whiteway 28 Dec., You have neither the scrawl nor the spelling of your sex. 1742Gray Propertius ii. 73 She..Condemns her fickle Sexe's fond Mistake. 1763G. Williams in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1843) I. 265 It would astonish you to see the mixture of sexes at this place. 1780Bentham Princ. Legisl. vi. §35 The sensibility of the female sex appears..to be greater than that of the male. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles vi. iii, Her sex's dress regain'd. 1836Thirlwall Greece xi. II. 51 Solon also made regulations for the government of the other sex. 1846Ecclesiologist Feb. 41 The propriety and necessity of dividing the sexes during the publick offices of the Church. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xxv, She was by no means so far superior to her sex as to be above jealousy. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. i, It was a school for both sexes. 1886Mabel Collins Prettiest Woman ii, Zadwiga had not yet given any serious attention to the other sex.
b. collect. followed by plural verb. rare.
1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man iv. (Globe) 632/2 Our sex are like poor tradesmen. 1839H. Malcom Trav. (1840) 40/1 Neither sex tattoo any part of their bodies.
c. the fair(er) sex, gentle(r) sex, soft(er) sex, weak(er) sex; the devout sex; the second sex; † the woman sex: the female sex, women. the † better sex, sterner sex: the male sex, men.[1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. E vij b, Y⊇ magnificency & liberalitie of that gentle sex. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 38 Strong Sampson and wise Solomon are witnesses, that the strong men are slaine by this weaker sexe.] 1641Brome Jovial Crew iii. (1652) H 4, I am bound by a strong vow to kisse all of the woman sex I meet this morning. 1648J. Beaumont Psyche xiv. l, The softer sex, attending Him And his still-growing woes. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 22 Whiles the better sex seek prey abroad, the women (therein like themselves) keep home and spin. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. v. ix. 176 Persons of the fairer Sex. a1700Evelyn Diary 12 Nov. an. 1644, The Pillar..at which the devout sex are always rubbing their chaplets. 1701Stanhope St. Aug. Medit. i. xxxv. (1704) 82, I may..not suffer my self to be outdone by the weaker Sex. 1732[see fair a. 1 b]. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty x. 65 An elegant degree of plumpness peculiar to the skin of the softer sex. 1820Byron Juan iv. cviii, Benign Ceruleans of the second sex! Who advertise new poems by your looks. 1838Murray's Hand-bk. N. Germ. 430 It is much frequented by the fair sex. 1849C. Brontë Shirley III. xiv. 312 ‘Mama’ is rather a misanthropist, is she not? Not the best opinion of the sterner sex? 1894C. D. Tyler in Geog. Jrnl. III. 479 They are beardless, and usually wear a shock of unkempt hair, which is somewhat finer in the gentler sex. 1928D. K. Parker tr. Schopenhauer: Selections 443 Women..form the sexus sequior—the second sex. 1953H. M. Parshley tr. S. de Beauvoir (title) The second sex. 1961‘F. O'Brien’ Hard Life v. 42 Decent people should look after women—isn't that right? The weaker sex. 1974J. Mitchell Psychoanalysis & Feminism ii. ii. 306 Woman is the archetype of the oppressed consciousness: the second sex.
d. Used occas. with extended notion. the third sex, (a) eunuchs (in quot. 1820); (b) sarcastically (see quot. 1873); (c) homosexuals regarded as a separate sexual group.
1820Byron Juan iv. lxxxvi, From all the Pope makes yearly, 'twould perplex To find three perfect pipes of the third sex. Ibid. v. xxvi, A black old neutral personage Of the third sex stept up. 1873Ld. Houghton Monogr. 280 Sydney Smith..often spoke with much bitterness of the growing belief in three Sexes of Humanity—Men, Women, and Clergymen. 1896J. A. Symonds Probl. Mod. Ethics vi. 78 Burton..was led to surmise a crasis of the two sexes in persons subject to sexual inversion. Thus he came to speak of ‘the third sex’. 1924J. Riviere et al. tr. Freud's Coll. Papers II. xviii. 230 A very considerable measure of latent or unconscious homosexuality can be detected in all normal people. If these findings are taken into account, then, to be sure, the supposition that nature in a freakish mood created a ‘third sex’ falls to the ground. 1977C. Isherwood Christopher & his Kind ii. 20 Hirschfield..was..notorious all over western Europe as a leading expert on homosexuality. Thousands of members of The Third Sex, as he called it, looked up to him as their champion.
e. the sex: the female sex. [F. le sexe.]
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 235 As he that had tolde a long tale before certaine noble women, of a matter somewhat in honour touching the Sex. 1608D. T[uvill] Ess. Pol. & Mor. 101 b, Not yet weighing with himselfe, the weaknesse and imbecillitie of the sex. 1631Massinger Emperor East i. ii, I am called The Squire of Dames, or Servant of the Sex. 1697Vanbrugh Prov. Wife ii. ii, He has a strange penchant to grow fond of me, in spite of his aversion to the sex. 1760–2Goldsm. Cit. W. xcix, The men of Asia behave with more deference to the sex than you seem to imagine. 1792A. Young Trav. France I. 220 The sex of Venice are undoubtedly of a distinguished beauty. 1823Byron Juan xiii. lxxix, We give the sex the pas. 1863R. F. Burton W. Africa I. 22 Going ‘up stairs’, as the sex says, at 5 a.m. on the day after arrival, I cast the first glance at Funchal. 1892‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claim. xvii. 160 The customers applauded, the sex began to flock in. 1920D. Lindsay Voyage to Arcturus i. 2 He was used to such receptions at the hands of the sex.
f. Without the, in predicative quasi-adj. use = feminine. rare.
a1700Dryden Cymon & Iph. 368 She hugg'd th' Offender, and forgave th' Offence, Sex to the last!
2. Quality in respect of being male or female.
a. With regard to persons or animals.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 282 b, Y⊇ bee, whiche neuer gendreth with ony make of his kynde, nor yet hath ony distinct sex. 1577T. Kendall Flowers of Epigr. 71 b, If by corps supposed may be her seex, then sure a virgin she. 1616T. Scot Philomythie i. (ed. 2) A 3 Euen as Hares change shape and sex, some say Once euery yeare. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. iii. 18 A critical view of bones makes a good distinction of sexes. a1665Digby Chym. Secrets (1682) ii. 225 Persons of all Ages and Sexes. 1667Milton P.L. i. 424 For Spirits when they please can either Sex assume, or both. 1710–11Swift Jrnl. to Stella 7 Mar., I find I was mistaken in the sex, 'tis a boy. 1757Smollett Reprisal iv. v, As for me, my sex protects me. 1825Scott Betrothed xiii, I am but a poor and neglected woman, feeble both from sex and age. 1841Elphinstone Hist. India I. 349 When persons of different sexes walk together, the woman always follows the man. 1882J. E. Tenison-Woods Fish N. S. Wales 116 Oysters are of distinct sexes.
b. with regard to plants (see female a. 2, male a. 2).
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 28 Some seeme to haue both sexes and kindes: as the Oke, the Lawrell and such others. 1631Widdowes Nat. Philos. (ed. 2) 49 There be sexes of hearbes..namely, the Male or Female. 1720P. Blair Bot. Ess. iv. 237 These being very evident Proofs of a necessity of two Sexes in Plants as well as in Animals. 1790Smellie Philos. Nat. Hist. I. 245 There is not a notion more generally adopted, than that vegetables have the distinction of sexes. 1848Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) II. 80 Change of Sex under the influence of external causes.
3. a. The distinction between male and female in general. In recent use often with more explicit notion: The sum of those differences in the structure and function of the reproductive organs on the ground of which beings are distinguished as male and female, and of the other physiological differences consequent on these; the class of phenomena with which these differences are concerned.
organs of sex: the reproductive organs in sexed animals or plants.
a1631Donne Songs & Sonn., The Primrose Poems 1912 I. 61 Should she Be more then woman, she would get above All thought of sexe, and think to move My heart to study her, and not to love. a1643Cartwright Siedge iii. vi, My Soul's As Male as yours; there's no Sex in the mind. 1748W. Melmoth Fitzosborne Lett. lxii. (1749) II. 119 There may be a kind of sex in the very soul. 1751Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 129 Besides number, another characteristic, visible in substances, is that of sex. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 68 Athenè..has nothing of sex except the gender, nothing of the woman except the form. 1887K. Pearson Eth. Freethought xv. (1888) 429 What is the true type of social (moral) action in matters of sex? 1895Crackanthorpe in 19th Cent. Apr. 607 (art.) Sex in modern literature. Ibid. 614 The writers and readers who have strenuously refused to allow to sex its place in creative art. 1912H. G. Wells Marriage ii. §6. 72 The young need..to be told..all we know of three fundamental things; the first of which is God,..and the third Sex.
b. Sexual intercourse. Freq. in phr. to have sex (with).
1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 57 If you want to have sex, you've got to trust At the core of your heart, the other creature. 1952S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) x. 174 Her arms went around his neck and his hand rested on her waist, and they had a brief moment of friendship before the sex began. 1960R. East Kingston Black viii. 82 She refused to have sex with him. 1962Listener 7 June 1006/2 Why wasn't Bond ‘more tender’ in his love⁓making? Why did he just ‘have sex’ and disappear? 1962Woman's Own 18 Aug. 29/3 Those trends in our society that make sex before marriage so easy. 1971Petticoat 17 July 6/2 The most conspicuous consequence of sex before marriage is the possibility of pregnancy. 1980Times 6 Sept. 2/2 Michael was alongside me, and in due course, on top of me. We had not had sex, but we were contemplating it.
c. Genitalia; a penis. slang.
1938D. Gascoyne Hölderlin's Madness 18 And the black cypresses strained upwards like the sex of a hanged man. 1956H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) xviii. 162 His eyes turned to his pants, gaping open, and his sex sick as an overhandled rattler gaping through. 1977T. Allbeury Man with President's Mind i. 9 The narrow white briefs that barely captured her sex.
¶4. Used, by confusion, in senses of sect (q.v. 1, 4 b, 7, and cf. 1 d note).
1575–85Abp. Sandys Serm. xx. 358 So are all sexes and sorts of people called vpon. 1583B. Melbancke Philotimus L iij b, Whether thinkest thou better sporte & more absurd, to see an Asse play on an harpe contrary to his sex, or heare [etc.]. 1586J. Hooker Hist. Irel. 180/2 in Holinshed, The whole sex of the Oconhours. 1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 359 O detestable furie, not to be found in most cruell beasts, which spare the blood of their sexe. a1704T. Brown Dial. Dead, Friendship Wks. 1711 IV. 56 We have had enough of these Christians, and sure there can be no worse among the other Sex of Mankind [i.e. Jews and Turks]? 1707Atterbury Large Vind. Doctr. 47 Much less can I imagine, why a Jewish Sex (whether of Pharisees or Saducees) should be represented, as [etc.].
5. attrib. and Comb., as sex activity, sex affair [affair 3], sex aid, sex-anger, sex antagonism, sex awareness, sex behaviour, sex circuit [circuit 7], sex clinic, sex complex [complex n. 3], sex-compulsion, sex-consciousness, sex-contrast, sex-craving, sex difference, sex-distinction, sex distribution, sex education, sex emotion, sex equality, sex-excitement, sex-experience, sex-exploitation, sex-feeling, sex fiend [fiend 4 a], sex film, sex-flow, sex function, sex game, sex-hate, sex-hatred, sex hygiene, sex-inertia, sex-instruction, sex joke, sex life, sex-longing, sex-love, sex-machine [machine n. 4 d], sex magazine, sex mania, sex maniac, sex manifestation, sex manual [manual n. 1 b], sex-morality, sex novel, sex obsession, sex organ [organ n.1 5], sex orgy, sex partner, sex-party [party n. 9], sex-power, sex problem, sex question, sex repression, sex show, sex-specificity, sex starvation, sex stereotype, sex-stereotyping, sex story, sex-talk, sex-thrill, sex-union, sex war, sex warfare, etc.; sex-abusing, sex-alive, sex-angry, sex-conscious [conscious a. 12], sex-crazed, sex-emancipated, sex-influenced, sex-mad [mad a. 4 c], sex-obsessed, sex-segregated, sex-smelling, sex-specific, sex-starved, sex transforming adjs.; sex act, the (or an) act of sexual intercourse; sex-appeal, sexual attractiveness; qualities which attract members of the opposite sex; also fig.; hence sex-appeal v. trans. and intr., to attract sexually; sex-appealing ppl. a., having or exerting sex appeal; sex attractant, a substance produced by one sex of a species that attracts members of the opposite sex, or a synthetic substance with the same property; also attrib. or as adj.; sex-blind a., not discriminating between the sexes; sexboat U.S. slang, sex-bomb slang = sexpot below; sex-cell, a reproductive cell, with either male or female function; a sperm-cell or an egg-cell; sex change, a change of sex; spec. an apparent change of sex brought about by surgical means, treatment with hormones, etc.; also attrib.; sex chromatin, the material of a small heterochromatic body (believed to be an inactivated X chromosome) of which there is one in a normal (XX) female cell and in general one less than the number of X (or Z) chromosomes in a cell; also attrib.; sex chromosome, each of the chromosomes (normally two in number) in a cell's chromosomal complement the particular combination of which (as XX or XY) determines an individual's sex; opp. autosome; hence sex-chromosomal adj.; sex crime, a crime involving sexual assault or with a sexual motive; a sexual act regarded as a crime; hence sex criminal; sex-determinant, that which determines an individual's sex; sex determination, the biological process that settles the sex of an individual; sex determiner, a gene which determines the sex of the individual bearing it; sex-determining ppl. a., determining an individual's sex; sex discrimination orig. U.S., unfavourable treatment motivated by prejudice against members of a particular sex; hence sex-discriminating ppl. adj., sex-discriminatory adj.; sex drive, the principle which motivates satisfaction of sexual needs; sex factor, (a) a sex-determining chromosome or gene; (b) [tr. F. facteur sexuel (Jacob & Wollman 1957, in Compt. Rend. CCXLV. 1840)], a bacterial plasmid which can promote the transfer of genetic material from its (‘male’) host to another (‘female’) bacterium in which recombination then takes place; sex-free a., (a) having a liberated attitude towards sex; (b) not involving sex; sex hormone, any of the (natural or synthetic) hormones that affect sexual development or behaviour, esp. those produced by the gonads; sex impulse, the impulse towards satisfaction of sexual needs; sex instinct, the behaviour and feelings associated with sexual reproduction considered as an instinct for the survival of the species; sex-interest, concern with a sexual relationship, esp. as a theme or episode in a story, film, etc.; sex-intergrade, an intersex; sex-killer, a murderer who sexually assaults his victim; hence sex-killing vbl. n.; sex kitten colloq., a young woman who exploits her sex appeal; hence sex-kittenish adj.; sex-mosaic Biol., an individual some of whose cells are of one sex and the rest of the other; sex object, a person towards whom or thing towards which the sexual impulse is directed; a person regarded only as the object of sexual desire; sex offence, (U.S.) offense, a breach of law or etiquette involving sex; sex-offender, a person guilty of a sex offence; sex play, (a) a play about sex or with sexual content; (b) sexual activity stopping short of intercourse; sexpot, sex-pot colloq., a sexually exciting person, esp. a woman; also, a sexually very active or sex-obsessed person; also attrib. or as adj.; sex ratio, the ratio of the numbers of individuals of each sex; sex relation, (a) sexual relationship; (b) pl. sexual intercourse; also sex relationship; sex-related adj.; sex-reversal, adoption of a form or role characteristic of the opposite sex; hence sex-reversed, -reversing ppl. adjs.; sex role Social Psychol., the culturally determined role or behaviour which a person learns as appropriate to his or her sex; sex shop, a shop selling sex magazines, aids, etc.; sex surrogate, a person employed as a sexual partner for a person undergoing therapy for sexual problems; sex symbol, (a) a person who is for many the epitome of sexual attraction and glamour; (b) a symbol with a sexual signification; sex therapy, therapy that deals with a person's psychological impediments to sexual intercourse or with other sexual problems; so sex therapist; sex-typed ppl. a. Sociol. and Psychol., typified as being characteristic of either the male or the female sex; so sex-typing ppl. adj. and vbl. n.; sex urge = sex drive above. (Many combs. are paralleled by a collocation with sexual a. 3.)
1887Jrnl. Educ. No. 210. 29 If this examination craze is to prevail, and the *sex-abolitionists are to have their way.
1781Cowper Expost. 415 Sin, that in old time Brought fire from heav'n, the *sex-abusing crime.
1918M. Stopes Married Love vi. 62 What must be taking place in the female system as a result of the completed *sex act? 1958Listener 21 Aug. 263/1 A consciousness of guilt in the sex act. 1972J. Symons Bloody Murder xii. 160 Detailed accounts of sex acts is [sic] still less frequent in the crime story than in ordinary novels.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. iii. 44 Woman..has developed in the lines of action to which she was confined; and those were always lines of *sex-activity. 1949M. Mead Male & Female x. 208 The burden of choosing between sex activity and other activities has been taken off the individual.
1933Dylan Thomas Let. Nov. (1966) 51 She who lives serene..And drags her tea-time *sex affair all fresh To the dinner table. 1949M. Mead Male & Female v. 118 Two inexperienced adolescents had a first sex-affair.
1977Gay News 7–20 Apr. 14/3, I should like to dismiss this neat little toy as a *sex-aid for sadomasochists.
1923*Sex-alive [see ranch dog s.v. ranch n.2 3 a].
1923D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xiii. 294 And if for a time you do overcome her with reason, the *sex-anger only arises more hideously.
Ibid., You can reason with a *sex-angry woman till you are black in the face.
1909E. Robins Votes for Women i. 44 This ferment of feminism..[is] likely to bring a very terrible thing in its train... *Sex antagonism. 1952A. Christie Mrs McGinty's Dead xii. 93 We really get a feeling of sex antagonism between the chap and the girl.
1924Amer. Mercury II. 318/1 An actress with *sex appeal is four times out of five a more effective actress. 1924G. R. Chester On Lot & Off 25 She'd sex appeal me all right! 1953Encounter Nov. 32/2 For the frustrated and starved, it [sc. Communism] has all the sex-appeal of a strong, monolithic creed. 1979Guardian 30 Mar. 9/6 Two conflicting general [education] policies have been put forwards by the Conservatives... Both have political sex appeal. 1980N. Freeling Castang's City xi. 68 A very feminine charm, next door to sex appeal.
1928Daily Express 24 Nov. 4/1 *Sex-appealing women should cut out the hurt feelings, the dewy eyes, trembling lips, the ‘Please, I'm just a woman’ stuff. 1932News Chron. 20 June 4/1 Both [stories] are glittering, glamorous, sex-appealing. 1937G. Frankau More of Us v. 61 ‘Ergo et propter hoc festina lente’, Remarked Athene from that smoke-blue ceiling. But Innocent continued sex-appealing.
1964Listener 27 Aug. 291/2 The study of *sex-attractant odours in insects has shown that these may be so highly specific that a very slight change in their chemical structure may make them less effective or even quite ineffective. 1976Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Sept. 5/1 Many species manufacture and use chemicals as sex attractants.
1925John o' London's Weekly 5 Dec. 360/1 In many fishes..there seems little hint of *sex⁓awareness. 1949M. Mead Male & Female xiv. 284 The period between childhood sexuality focussed on the parent and the stirring of adolescent sex awareness.
1923J. S. Huxley Ess. of Biologist iv. 144 Castrated animals fail to realize either possibility of normal *sex-behaviour. 1949M. Mead Male & Female xvii. 354 The exaggerated over-concern with the other..puts an extraordinary strain on sex behaviour.
1975New Yorker 29 Sept. 29/1 Even in an ideal *sex-blind situation you are going to encounter different kinds of blocksmanship between you and your goals. 1977N.Y. Post 30 Mar. 3 Spokesmen for several liberal groups..declared yesterday that totally sex-blind job assignments are a violation of prisoners' rights.
1962E. Lacy Freeloaders ii. 22, I don't buy the bit that every mademoiselle is automatically a *sexboat because she's French.
1963L. Deighton Horse under Water xxii. 98 I've got the photo of your secretarial *sex⁓bomb. 1976P. Cave High Flying Birds iii. 42 Sex-bomb, Sonya Stelling might be. Oscar contender she was not.
1889Geddes & Thomson Evol. Sex 91 Very commonly the *sex-cells originate in the ectoderm and ripen there.
1946Nature 3 Aug. 173/2 These results.., while providing virtual proof of *sex-change from male to female in a section of the male population, point also to the probable occurrence of two types of males in P[atella] vulgata. 1960Twentieth Century Mar. 258 Sex-change may well seem, as The Times said, ‘unprepossessing’ as a subject for comedy. 1970Daily Tel. 21 Dec. 2/6 More people with transsexual problems are seeking National Health sex⁓change operations.
1952Graham & Barr in Anat. Rec. CXII. 709 The term ‘sex influenced chromatin’, or simply ‘*sex chromatin’, will be used in the description to follow for the nuclear structure characterized by a size relation to sex. 1962Lancet 27 Jan. 216/2 In all cases the sex⁓chromatin pattern was shown to be consistent with the morphological sex.
1913Jrnl. Exper. Zool. XV. 593 The two white females..came from the union of the two-X egg with the no-X sperm of the vermillion pink male, and should be entirely maternal and entirely non-paternal in *sex chromosomal composition, i.e., they should be exact counterparts..of their mother.
1906E. B. Wilson in Jrnl. Exper. Zool. III. 28 These chromosomes are the bearers of the male and female qualities (or the factors essential to the production of these qualities) respectively. They may also be designated (whenever it is desirable to avoid circumlocution) as *sex-chromosomes. 1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. 46 From all the facts, we can, I think, be sure that all the higher animals possess special X or sex-chromosomes, two in one sex, one in the other, by whose agency sex is determined. 1974Goodenough & Levine Genetics x. 466 The sex of a fly is determined, in part, by the number of euchromatic sex chromosomes, called X chromosomes, possessed by an individual.
1920D. H. Lawrence Women in Love xvi. 221 Each acknowledges the perfection of the polarised *sex-circuit.
1951R. Campbell Light on Dark Horse 319 These Germans had money from the Komintern and they set up *sex-clinics and communist-cells. 1972Newsweek 27 Nov. 65 The sex clinic is fast becoming as vital a part of the modern hospital as the emergency room.
1921R. Macaulay Dangerous Ages vi. 111 You prefer to avoid discussing certain aspects of your life. You obviously have a *sex complex.
1928D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover vi. 64 Be damned to the artificial *sex-compulsion! refuse it!
1912T. Dreiser Financier xx. 222 From the first she was somewhat *sex-conscious. 1952S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) ii. 30 But she's certainly a sex-conscious girl. It's in her voice, in the way she sits, the way she drinks.
1911Freewoman 7 Dec. 56/1 The impression given..is that the editors and most of the contributors picture the average woman as an individual wallowing in *sex-consciousness. 1953D. A. Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles II. 193 ‘Sex consciousness’..remains for a long time, the male continuing to feed the female..even after the young are hatched.
1911J. A. Thomson Biol. Seasons iii. 263 The male ‘ends’ are salmon red or dull pink; the female ‘ends’ are greenish-grey or drab—the *sex-contrast eking itself out in colour. 1949M. Mead Male & Female v. 110 The little boys will feel..the potential sex-contrast with the mother.
1921D. H. Lawrence Psychoanal. & Unconscious i. 20 The incest-craving is not the result of inhibition of normal *sex-craving.
1954R. P. Bissell High Water xx. 218 Well I'm reading this here story about a *sex-crazed maniac.
1925Amer. Mercury Feb. 196 *Sex crimes, which are commonly regarded as a natural result of drug taking, actually never occur among addicts. 1965G. McInnes Road to Gundagai vi. 99 The murder of Alma Tirtschke by Colin Ross..was a sex crime which gripped Melbourne for weeks. 1977Gay News 7–20 Apr. 10/1 Three gay people locked away in a private house constitutes a public meeting, and sexual acts that take place between any or all of them are sex crimes.
1972J. Symons Players & Game xv. 100 Inadequacy. That's the mark of *sex criminals.
1902Biol. Bull. III. 73 If we accept the theory that chromatin is the bearer of hereditary qualities, there could be little doubt regarding the necessary chromosomic character of a *sex determinant.
1889Geddes & Thomson Evolution of Sex iii. 49 The temperature of the time, not of birth but of *sex determination, must of course be noted. 1977Dædalus CVI. iv. 137 Primitive wasps..evolved the sex determination mechanism of haplodiploidy, whereby unfertilized eggs yield males and fertilized eggs yield females.
1912Jrnl. Exper. Zool. XII. 509 Bateson and Punnett ('11) describe certain exceptions occurring in their sex-linkage experiment with fowls, which they suggest may be due to a failure of the usual association between the sex-linked factor and the *sex-determiner, i.e., to ‘crossing over’ in the female. 1960E. J. Gardner Princ. Genetics vii. 123/2 When the parallelism was discovered between the chromosome cycle and gene behaviour it was generally assumed that genes other than sex determiners were also located in the sex chromosomes.
1901Geddes & Thomson Evol. Sex (ed. 2) 51 In regard to rotifers (Hydatina), Maupas maintains that temperature is the *sex-determining factor. 1966Lancet 24 Dec. 1397/1 This discrepancy between mammals and birds..might reflect different evolutionary origins of chromosomal sex-determining mechanisms in the two classes.
1918M. Stopes Married Love iii. 19 Vaguely, perhaps, men have realised that much of the charm of life lies in the *sex-differences between men and women. 1979Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. Feb. 25 Clear sex differences in the probability of labor force participation and in the kinds of jobs held.
1964C. Barber Ling. Change in Present-Day Eng. iv. 105 The *sex-discriminating word used to indicate that the member of some profession or the holder of some office is a woman. 1976Listener 4 Mar. 264/3, I do not care if it is unfair, or sex-discriminating, for a woman to get an old age pension five years before a man.
1916Campaign Text-Bk. (National Woman's Party) 62 Enfranchised women in the United States regard the removal of *sex discrimination from our national constitution as a political need of primary importance. 1965Financial Times 24 Nov. 3/3 New guide⁓line interpretations on sex discrimination have just been issued by the Commission... So far the Commission has received over 400 complaints of sex discrimination. 1976Times 6 Jan. 2/3 Employers who have cheated women of equal pay by job-grading schemes..may be taken to court for sex discrimination.
1976A. Oakley in Mitchell & Oakley Rights & Wrongs of Women i. 27 This practical equality challenged the law which was *sex-discriminatory.
1894H. Drummond Ascent of Man 317 The *sex-distinction slowly gathers definition.
1949M. Mead Male & Female xiii. 266 The very simple accidents of *sex distribution inside any family give a structure within which a child can feel unwanted.
1918R. S. Woodworth Dynamic Psychol. vii. 173 The association is not entirely a spreading of the *sex drive into the esthetic sphere. 1963A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex 54 There may be a period..when the sex-drive is latent. 1979J. Sherwood Hour of Hyenas ii. 23 You are very striking-looking, but..my power drive is far stronger nowadays than my sex drive.
1920Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 25 Sept. 884/2 The conference will..consider the topic of venereal disease from these..aspects: (1) medical measures; (2) enforcement of repression and protection laws; and (3) *sex education. 1969Guardian 7 Aug. 7/6 A series of sex-education talks I'd been giving at a North-east London youth club.
1936D. H. Lawrence Pornography & So On 46 The most high-flown *sex-emancipated young people.
1911O. Schreiner Women & Labour 232 The ignorant savage,..who violates and then clubs a female into submission, may be dominated, and is, by *sex emotions of a certain class. 1967A. Marshall in Coast to Coast 1965–6 108 He was sure the men he knew were incapable of any sex emotion other than an animal lust.
1907E. Densmore (title) *Sex equality. 1921Daily Mail Year Bk. 42/1 The organization of the League of Nations has from the outset been founded on the principle of sex equality. 1977‘J. Gash’ Judas Pair i. 14 She settled weeping while I found a coat. I'm all for sex equality.
1922Ld. Dawson of Penn Love-Marriage-Birth Control 23 If this harmful restraint succeeds in preventing conception there eventuates the inevitable prevalence of *sex excitement. 1936D. H. Lawrence Pornography & So On 30 Sex-excitement of a secretive, furtive sort.
1919M. Stopes Married Love (ed. 7) ix. 141 Women so harried by the undue drains of unregulated *sex-experience. 1953Sex experience [see sex play below].
1914J. London Let. 26 Mar. (1966) 419 The recent *sex-exploitation in our magazines and books.
1911R. C. Punnett Mendelism (ed. 3) xi. 107 The factor which repels the red-eye factor is in this case to be found in the male, and here consequently it is the male which must be regarded as heterozygous for a *sex factor that is lacking in the female. 1931E. B. Ford Mendelism & Evolution i. 14 Two doses of the sex factors carried by the X-chromosomes evoking the development of one of the sexes. 1955Science 25 Feb. 305/1 The sex alleles of monosporoidal lines from a cross can be determined by matings in corn seedlings with lines representing each of the four haploid combinations of the parental sex factors. 1959Genetics XLIV. 497 (heading) A variant sex factor in Escherichia coli. Ibid., The wild type sex factor (F′) of strain K-12 is characterized by its low affinity for the chromosome and its lack of any preferential site of attachment. 1968W. Hayes Genetics of Bacteria & their Viruses (ed. 2) xiv. 799 If the sex factor happens to be inserted into the chromosome.., the replication initiated in the sex factor proceeds around the complete, integrated structure so that the chromosome is transferred as well. 1973R. G. Krueger et al. Introd. Microbiol. xv. 423/2 The spread of a sex factor like △ through successive populations of cells carrying different resistance genes on nontransmissible plasmids could result at each step in a strain carrying more and more genes for antibiotic resistance.
1918M. Stopes Married Love v. 50 Even after a woman's dormant *sex-feeling is aroused..it may even take as much as from ten to twenty minutes of actual physical union to consummate her feeling. 1937Discovery May 162/2 Conjugal affection, as distinct from sex-feeling.
1970Women Speaking Apr. 4/2 The nearest man ever comes to this reduction to a word is when he offends society sexually: he is a *sex fiend. 1976T. Heald Let Sleeping Dogs Die vi. 111 She was picked up by a sex fiend..and raped.
1970*Sex film [see sex-instruction below].
1936D. H. Lawrence Pornography & So On 44 The *sex-flow is dying out of the young.
1929― Pornography & Obscenity 24 But the bohemian is ‘*sex free’. 1960Encounter Sept. 72/1 Gerda is one of those sex-free affairs between tormented men and life-accepting women.
1897J. Hutchinson in Arch. Surg. VIII. 230 Loss of *Sex Function.
a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. x. 244 The favorite children's games, often played in the open street..were *sex games. 1976J. Crosby Nightfall xxvi. 148 ‘Don't you like sex games?’ she said.
a1930D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 140 All this talk of equality between the sexes is merely an expression of *sex-hate.
1913J. London Let. 11 Oct. (1966) 408 She cherishes a *sex hatred for a woman who was bigger than she.
1917Jrnl. Exper. Zool. XXIII. 371 (heading) The free-martin; a study of the action of *sex hormones in the foetal life of cattle. 1965New Scientist 22 Apr. 218/3 The materials contained in the various forms of The Pill are synthetic sex hormones.
1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 23/2 The reader is treated as the sluggish male is treated by the *sex-hungry cave woman in the shirt ads.
1912G. F. Lydston (title) *Sex hygiene for the male and what to say to the boy. 1949M. Mead Male & Female i. 17 Proper diet, rest, and sex hygiene have taken care of that.
a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xi. 281 In the streets the *sex impulse shows stripped of all disguise. 1957J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revelation ix. 223 The powerful emergence of the sex-impulse in adolescence.
1936D. H. Lawrence Pornography & So On 45 You may even bring about a state of utter indifference and *sex-inertia.
1951H. A. Lindsay et al. in Jrnl. Nat. Cancer Inst. XII. 244 During accelerated synthesis of Nissl material the *sex-influenced chromatin moves from its usual position, next to the nucleolus, toward the nuclear membrane.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. iii. 56 What business has a little girl with the instincts of maternity?.. They are *sex⁓instincts, and should not appear till the period of adolescence. 1976A. Montagu Nature of Human Aggression (1978) iv. 64 Everyone ‘knows’ from his or her own experience that there is such a thing as a sex instinct.
1935E. Bowen House in Paris i. iii. 42 We do not consider him ripe for direct *sex-instruction yet, though my husband is working towards this through botany. 1970Guardian 10 Dec. 10/4 From time to time we have to see, not sex films, but sex-instruction films.
1911Maclean's Mag. Apr. 139/2 There is scarcely any ‘*sex interest’ in it at all. 1940‘G. Orwell’ in Horizon Mar. 189 Both of these papers admit a certain amount of sex-interest into their stories.
1917*Sex-intergrade [see intersex]. 1962Lancet 27 Jan. 216/2 The hypothesis, advanced by Lang, that some male homosexuals are sex intergrades—i.e., morphologically male but genotypically female.
1941‘G. Orwell’ in Horizon IV. 155 More than half, perhaps three-quarters, of the jokes are *sex jokes.
1959M. Gilbert Blood & Judgement ii. 26 You'd be surprised..how many *sex-killers turn out to be their mothers' favourite sons.
1972J. McClure Caterpillar Cop ii. 15 Murders..kept things going... But wanton *sex killings involving the young were quite another matter.
1958Daily Sketch 2 June 11/4 Clever film men have moulded her *sex-kitten type. 1966Guardian 7 Jan. 9/2 Brigitte Bardot..the original sex kitten with the French charm. 1977D. Morris Manwatching 256 This is why we like ‘sex kittens’ more than females who are ‘catty’.
1963J. Fowles Collector ii. 166 Antoinette was almost parodying herself, she was so *sex-kittenish.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. vii. 143 It should be..understood..that the higher development of social life following the economic independence of women makes possible a higher *sex-life than has ever yet been known. 1922S. Paton Signs of Sanity vi. 205 Some phases of our instinctive activities..we discuss frankly..; others, notably the sex⁓life, we treat in a..furtive manner. 1936‘P. Quentin’ Puzzle for Fools xx. 181, I get no kick out of the sex⁓life of the white-tailed baboon. 1976Vogue 15 Mar. 13/2 He is being reviled for apparently having absolutely no sex life, none at all. 1979R. Jaffe Class Reunion i. v. 47 Richard was the only boy..who had a regular sex life with a girl, and so he was a celebrity.
1925T. Dreiser Amer. Tragedy (1926) II. iii. xiv. 183 All those..*sex-longings..had long since been covered with an easy manner.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. xii. 260 The generous giving impulse of *sex-love. 1976R. Delmar in Mitchell & Oakley Rights & Wrongs of Women ix. 281 There are several conditions which, in Engels..make sex love the rule within the proletariat.
1935H. Edib Clown & his Daughter viii. 43 Now she wants to burden me with another *sex-machine. 1970Times 9 Dec. 16/4 Lulu herself, from her first days as an insatiably successful sex-machine to her last days as an amateur prostitute, has no existence outside her appetite.
1943,1974*Sex-mad [see mad a. 4 c].
1931*Sex magazine [see confession magazine]. 1980P. Kinsley Vatchman Switch vii. 66 The customs officer..sold any sex-magazines he could confiscate from foreign tourists.
1895Fortn. Rev. 1 Apr. 592 *Sex mania in art and literature can be but a passing phase.
1895H. Garland Rose of Dutcher's Coolly viii. 90 The brakeman came through and eyed her with the glare of a *sex-maniac. 1971Daily Tel. 14 Dec. 3 The Jersey sex maniac..was jailed for 30 years yesterday for 13 indecent and sexual offences against young girls and boys. 1975‘D. Rutherford’ Mystery Tour i. 8 Wasn't that [sc. the murder] the work of some sadistic sex maniac?
1911O. Schreiner Women & Labour v. 187 It is among certain orders of birds that *sex manifestations appear to assume their most harmonious and poetical forms on earth. 1949M. Mead Male & Female viii. 167 These [sc. seizures] are extremely violent, but without specific sex manifestations.
1975H. McCloy Minotaur Country iii. 21 He would be a sober, industrious lover. He would read all the *sex manuals.
1926W. R. Inge Lay Thoughts iii. 254 The pleasantest side of our civilization—the ease with which innocent friendships are made between men and women—stands or falls with that Christian *sex-morality which is now being openly flouted. 1958Listener 4 Dec. 933/2 Queen Victoria..instituted a new reign of sex-morality.
1903Bull. Museum Compar. Zool. Harvard Coll. XL. 197 Unilateral and mixed hermaphrodites are an exceptional form of *sex-mosaic. 1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. 296 It is possible in the case of abnormal distribution of the sex-chromosomes during development to obtain some parts of the body with the male-determining, others with the female-determining complement of chromosomes, with the result that a sex-mosaic or gynandromorph is the result [sic]. 1955Japanese Jrnl. Zool. XI. 350 The 1st gynandromorph is a simple bilateral sex mosaic showing yellow Ww gene in the left male wings and white Ww gene in the right female wings.
1923in C. D. Stelling Yea & Nay 33 (heading) Is there any alternative to the *sex novel? 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 23/2 Amid the unmitigated torrent of sadistic sex novels works of reflection are tolerated only if they are..‘warmly human’.
1911Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. XXII. 423 Instead of sublimating the sex impulse, he [sc. Leonardo da Vinci] directed it towards the physical Jesus in toto. It was simply the substitution of one *sex object for another. 1963B. Friedan Feminine Mystique (1965) xi. 266 For the woman who lives according to the feminine mystique, there is no road to achievement, or status, or identity, except the sexual one: the achievement of sexual conquest, status as a desirable sex object, identity as a sexually successful wife and mother. 1980G. Greene Doctor Fischer of Geneva ix. 59 Deane is not an actor: he is a sex object. Teenage girls worship him.
1914New Republic 26 Dec. 27/1 An almost lyrical open-airness.. saved ‘The Garden Without Walls,’..from being *sex-obsessed. 1979London Rev. Bks. 25 Oct. 13/1 Civilised human beings are remarkable among animal species for being sex-obsessed.
1920F. M. Ford Let. 19 Sept. (1965) 127 The end would be the most horribly costive neurastheniac you can imagine, with incredible *sex obsessions sedulously concealed.
1911J. London Let. 8 Jan. (1966) 330 You are suffering from what you deem a *sex-offence. 1977J. Thomson Case Closed vii. 85 The offences..included fraud, burglary,..assault, sex offences of various sorts.
1939Columbia Law Rev. Mar. 535 Prior to the enactment of this statute in Illinois, a criminal *sex offender received no special treatment. 1976K. Bonfiglioli Something Nasty iii. 33 We 'ave only two known sex-offenders worth the name in this Parish.
1902W. James Var. Relig. Exper. i. 12 That without the chemical contributions which the *sex-organs make to the blood, the brain would not be nourished so as to carry on religious activities..may be true or not true. 1978Times 15 Mar. 6/3 Old symbols like mutilation of sex organs..are passé.
1962J. Heller Catch-22 xxi. 208 Officers' clubs everywhere pulsated with blurred but knowing accounts of lavish, hushed-up drinking and *sex orgies there.
1949M. Mead Male & Female ix. 195 But patterns that regulate competition in the choice of *sex partners are learned patterns. 1970Sex partner [see sex therapy below].
1958J. Kerouac On Road i. i. 8 He told him of..his innumerable girls and *sex-parties and pornographic pictures.
1916G. B. Shaw Overruled 63 Plays occupied wholly with the conventional results are..unsatisfying as *sex plays. 1932Wodehouse Louder & Funnier 270 When I write my daring sex-play, I have to submit it to Lord Cromer, who starts licking his blue pencil the moment he has opened the envelope. 1953H. M. Parshley tr. De Beauvoir's Second Sex II. vii. 682 The excessive sentimentality,..and platonic crushes of adolescent girls,..are much more injurious than a little childish sex play and a few definite sex experiences. 1961W. Brown Bedeviled 17 Gradually, however, the fondling developed into open sex play which frightened her.
1957F. Morton Art of Courtship 156 How pitiful the American who cannot command the smile of a *sexpot. 1961Harper's Bazaar May 57/2 Ovid..the dirty old sexpot. 1963J. T. Story Something for Nothing i. 17 ‘I like the hockey type,’ Albert said. ‘I can't stand these sex-pots.’ 1975New Yorker 5 May 115/1 Graham Chapman, John Cleese..with Connie Booth and Carol Cleveland as their sexpot aides. 1981London Mag. July 89/2 Tough Games Mistress. Rebellious sexpot pupil (pregnant again).
1918M. Stopes Married Love viii. 76 The periods of complete abstinence should be opportunities for transmuting the healthy *sex-power into work of every sort. 1977London's Outrage i. 7 The bully-boy sex-power of Nazism/fascism is very attractive and an easy solution to our complex moral and social dilemmas.
1876Hardy Ethelberta xxxvii, You cannot have celebrity and *sex-privilege both.
1900J. X. Merriman Let. 1 July (1966) 222 The shrieking sisterhood who write on *sex problems and scream out for votes. 1979Guardian 10 July 9/1 Professional partners used in the treatment of sex problems.
1902G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession p. xx, Plays which treat *sex questions as problems for thought instead of as aphrodisiacs will be freely performed. 1917F. W. S. Browne in Proc. Brit. Soc. for Study Sex Psychol. 7 General early marriage, even if possible under present conditions, does not solve the sex question.
1906Biometrika V. 79 The *sex-ratio for the family of each individual is directly calculated and tabled. 1974J. Burnett Useful Toil i. 48 Because of the unequal sex ratio one in three [Victorian] women were ‘doomed’ to spinsterhood.
1977Detroit Free Press 11 Dec. 9-c/1 A high-ranking official of Planned Parenthood says television's standards on *sex-related programming should be as much a public issue as its standards on televised violence.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. i. 5 The economic status of the human female is relative to the *sex-relation. 1911O. Schreiner Let. in First & Scott Olive Schreiner (1980) vii. 291 [She] thinks it's wrong for people, even if married, to have sex relations with each other except just when they want to make a child. 1949M. Mead Male & Female i. 14 The infant..before he can toddle has absorbed a particular style of sex relations. 1980First & Scott Olive Schreiner viii. 307 A cutting about sex relations between Indians and white women.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. iv. 74 Let us bear in mind that all the tender ties of family are ties of blood, of *sex-relationship. 1963A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex i. 8 There are certain historical characteristics of the Society of Friends that ought specially to lead to..understanding of the significance of the sex relationship.
1926M. Leinster Dew on Leaf v. 29 He talked..about health, climate, and *sex-repression. 1958J. Cannan And be Villain i. 27 Richard used to treat me as a case of sex repression.
1916Amer. Naturalist L. 388 In the generic crosses which give all, or nearly all, males at the beginning of the season and all, or nearly all, females in the autumn what is happening?—true *sex reversal? or is it selective fertilization, differential maturation or a selective elimination of ova in the ovary? 1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. iv. 53 Hens which had undergone sex-reversal to cocks. 1949M. Mead Male & Female vi. 129 Peoples may provide sex-reversal rôles for both sexes.
1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. iv. 53 Similar results have now been obtained..by breeding from *sex-reversed moths. 1959Sex-reversed [see feminization 2].
1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. iv. 52 Some sexually abnormal human beings are the victims of this *sex-reversing power.
1927W. B. Wolfe tr. Adler's Understanding Human Nature i. vii. 135 There are only two *sex rôles possible. One must orient oneself according to one of two models, either that of an ideal woman, or according to that of an ideal man. 1969W. H. Sewell in E. F. Borgatta Social Psychol. 218/1 The sex-role concepts of children and..sex-role pressure in the socialization of the male child. 1977China Now July/Aug. 3/3 The sex-roles are traditionally presented and the girl who helps Mummy to hang out the washing is rewarded.
1955T. H. Pear English Social Differences 200 This class-segregated, *sex-segregated regime.
1970Guardian 26 Nov. 4/2 ‘*Sex-shops’..are now established in many West German cities. 1974K. Millett Flying (1975) iii. 307 Sarah stops by and gives us an account of the new sex shop in Tottenham Court Road. 1981Observer 4 Jan. 3/2 How do you designate a sex shop anyway? Does selling contraceptives make Boots a sex shop?
1959P. Bull I know Face x. 187 A city almost entirely devoted to *sex-shows.
1922Joyce Ulysses 535 The dark *sexsmelling theatre unbridles vice.
1961Giornale di Microbiologia IX. 149 Two phages have been isolated which are *sex-specific on E[scherichia] coli K 12. 1976P. Marks in Mitchell & Oakley Rights & Wrongs of Women v. 179 They may differ among themselves about how far vocations, and thus education, should be sex-specific.
1961Giornale di Microbiologia IX. 147 The same strains used to test the *sex-specificity of phages µ2 and ϕ1 were challenged with phages T1,.., T7.
1912M. Hastings New Sin ii. 57 *Sex-starvation, they call it. It's awful, but it can be done because it must be done. 1977‘D. Rutherford’ Return Load i. 12 He wondered whether sex starvation had..started to provoke hallucinations... He had seen..a gorgeous red-head.
1927A. Huxley Proper Studies 292 St. Anthony and the unwashed, underfed, *sex-starved monks of the Thebaid. 1978M. Birmingham Sleep in Ditch 164 Their first guess is that I'm a sex-starved grass-widow, glimpsing seducers behind every door.
1949M. Mead Male & Female vi. 137 A *sex stereotype that decries the interests..of each sex is usually not completely without a basis.
1977N.Z. Herald 8 Jan. 2-2/7 The society has new projects planned for its second decade, including a survey into *sex-stereotyping.
1936*Sex-story [see crime-story].
1979Guardian 10 July 9/1 Dr. Martin Cole's Institute for Sex Education and Research..has been supplying *sex surrogate therapy for ten years.
a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xx. 442 Men..might regard her as nothing but *sex symbol; she regarded herself as an intelligence. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 94/2 The ‘line’ [of chorus girls] itself..is even more basic than the sex symbol of the flower. 1976Botham & Donnelly Valentino i. 12 The olive skin of the man who would..become the world's first and most enduring sex symbol.
1931G. T. Renier English: Are they Human? iv. 85 The wide-spread ignorance of the technique of love among average Englishmen..results from the taboo on direct *sex-talk. 1977C. Fremlin Spider-Orchid xiii. 94 They have these sex talks..at school from the age of nine. 1978J. Pudney Thank Goodness for Cake 80 At the football club sex talk proliferated, constantly spiced with dirty stories.
1976National Observer (U.S.) 13 Mar. 6/3 American life-styles: a TV anchorman,..a rock star,..a groupie, a *sex therapist. 1977DeLora & Warren Understanding Sexual Interaction iv. 90 Sex therapists, who direct their creative energy toward the specifically sexual difficulties of individuals or couples.
1961R. A. & F. R. Harper in Encycl. Sexual Behaviour I. 348/2 Individuals and groups vary..in the quality and quantity of *sex therapy they need. 1970Belliveau & Richter Understanding Human Sexual Inadequacy (1971) iii. vii. 77 Success in sex therapy is dependent upon communication between the sex-partners.
1928D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover i. 6 In the actual *sex-thrill within the body, the sisters nearly succumbed to the strange male power.
1642H. More Song of Soul i. iii. lxxi, Mad-making waters, *sex trans-forming springs.
1941Miller & Dollard Social Learning & Imitation xii. 198 The punishments meted out to adults who actually exhibit such tendencies tend to maintain and strengthen the *sex-typed habits acquired. 1979Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. Feb. 31 The modal pattern for each sex is, nonetheless, conventionally sex-typed.
1941Miller & Dollard Social Learning & Imitation xii. 198 By the time a child reaches his second year *sex-typing has already begun. 1976New Society 4 Mar. 509/1 The ‘blue/gun for a boy: pink/dolly for a girl’, sex-typing syndrome.
1898C. P. Stetson Women & Econ. x. 213 We confuse the natural result of marriage in children, common to all forms of *sex-union, with the family,—a purely social phenomenon. 1923M. Stopes Contraception iii. 39 The type of woman who..has acquired the view that all sex union after the procreation of the desired number of children has been accomplished, is wrong.
1920M. Sanger Woman & New Race ix. 111 This man is not concerned with his wife's *sex urge, save as it responds to his own at times of his choosing. 1966D. Francis Flying Finish vi. 74 Bravery is built in... You can't stamp it out any more than the sex urge.
1912L. Housman (title) *Sex-war and woman's suffrage. 1978J. Irving World according to Garp xvii. 362 ‘Fucking women,’ the cabby said. ‘Fucking men,’ said Garp, feeling..that he had done his duty to ensure that the sex war went on.
1911‘I. Hay’ Safety Match i. i. 4 The sides of the house are equally balanced both for purposes of companionship and in the event of *sex-warfare.
▸ sex industry n. the commercial trade in sex and sexually stimulating materials, including prostitution, pornography, etc.; cf. sex worker n.
1965N.Y. Times 20 Jan. 15 (advt.) Here's a no-holds-barred attack on the U.S. *sex industry, the full, shocking story of..the big business boom in filth. 1978Washington Post 8 Jan. a16/3 For example, the District of Columbia is known as a ‘fast town’ tolerant of the sex industry, whereas Norfolk supposedly is conservative and open only to soft-core pornography.
▸ sex pest n. colloq. (chiefly Brit.) a sex offender; a person who sexually harasses another.
1985Times 7 Aug. 5/1 *Sex pest's one-way ticket back. A convicted sex offender, sent by a Californian judge..to Florida,..is to be returned to where he came from. 1992Independent 6 Jan. 5/4 Women are frightened to complain about sex pests because of the attitude of employers, researchers said. 2005Cairns (Queensland) Post (Nexis) 12 Apr. 9 A serial sex pest who tormented Cairns women and girls over a two-year period was jailed..yesterday.
▸ sex tour n. (a) a guided tour of a city's red-light district, museums of erotica, etc.; (b) a holiday taken specifically for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities; spec. a trip to a country (freq. in the developing world) made in order to take advantage of the lack of restrictions imposed on sexual activity, esp. the more open availability and lower cost of prostitutes.
1974N.Y. Times 8 Sept. 18/2 On the back of the..folder, entitled ‘Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen’, were listed the six excursions, with the *sex tour labeled, ‘Copenhagen's Naked Truth’. 1977Economist 7 May (Survey) 52/2 It is normal to smooth deals with much business hospitality, which has a special meaning in a country where ‘sex tours for Japanese businessmen’ are part of the invisible exports drive. 1995Village Voice (N.Y.) 19 Aug. 53 Any lonely shlub with a passport can feel like a stud..on 10-night sex tours in the Philippines.
▸ sex tourism n. tourism (usually to a developing country) undertaken specifically for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities; the taking of sex tours (see sex tour n. (b)).
1979N.Y. Times 5 Aug. 10/3 Protests against Japanese *sex tourism..seem likely to mount in Asia's developing countries, concurrently with criticism of Japanese business practices. 1997Bangkok Post 26 Feb. (Outlook section) 8/4 Sri Lanka is forming a Child Protection Authority to oversee a national campaign against youth-centred sex tourism.
▸ sex tourist n. (a) a person who visits a place in search of sexual titillation (rare); (b) a person who engages in sex tourism (now the usual sense).
1954C. Timberlake Bishop of Broadway xxv. 377 This ‘play for the *sex-tourists’—this ‘evening among the lesser fleshpots’—this ‘Darling of the Bawds’. 1979Assoc. Press Newswire (Nexis) 11 Nov. They are not the only sex tourists in Bangkok, which attracts other moneyed nationalities. 1984E. Kim in E. Y. Yu & E. H. Phillips Korean Women in Transition (1987) viii. 137 To understand the motives of Western sex tourists, one cannot ignore the importance of their fantasies about Asian women. 2002D. Aitkenhead Promised Land p. xiii, We kept company with sex tourists and murderers, made friends with gangsters and racists, found some of the finest clubs in the world, and witnessed some of the worst dancing in evidence anywhere on the planet.
▸ sex toy n. (a) a person viewed as a sexual plaything; (b) a device or object designed for sexual stimulation (as a dildo, vibrator, etc.) or to enhance sexual pleasure or performance.
1963J. Rechy in L. Jones Moderns 146 Tiny, like a *sextoy, she squirms her butt cutely. 1972Stud. in Family Planning 3 255 The current products clearly indicate the trend to view condoms not only as a contraceptive but also as a sex tool. Japan has a long tradition from the feudal days of such sex toys. 1976Leicester Trader 24 Nov. 22/2 (advt.) Sex toys catalogue pack. 1999J. Burchill Married Alive xiv. 206 Michaela turns to me and smiles as if all her Christmases have come at once and she's getting sex toys for all of them.
▸ sex work n. (a) the academic study of sexual behaviour or practices (rare); (b) work in the sex industry, esp. prostitution (in this sense, usually used with the intention of reducing negative connotations and of aligning the sex industry with conventional service industries).
1934Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 21 334 Hemp has been the subject of a great deal of study in regard to its sexual behavior. Malloch (1922) points out its desirability for *sex work. 1970N.Y. Times 27 Apr. 28/1 He [sc. Dr. William H. Masters] started sex work in 1954. 1983in C. Leigh Unrepentant Whore (2004) 71 Subtitled ‘The demystification of the Sex-Work Industry’, this one-woman performance piece was written by a prostitute. 1996F. M. Shaver in B. Schissel & L. Mahood Social Control in Canada ix. 205 Many feminist theorists simply denounce prostitution in particular and sex work in general as dangerous, degrading, and entirely undesirable as a profession.
▸ sex worker n. a person who works in the sex industry, esp. a prostitute (usually used with the intention of reducing negative connotations and of aligning the sex industry with conventional service industries).
1971N.Y. Times 7 Nov. 1/5 Coupling rage and laughter, detailing joys among urban field hands, thieves, postal workers, *sex workers, factory workers, and the inevitable unemployed, and letting them specify what America is to a great many black folks. 1984Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 18 July ‘Sex workers unite’, declared Carol Leigh. 2001N. Jones Rough Guide Trav. Health ii. 345 Syphilis prevalence has increased globally over recent years, especially in inner cities where it is associated with sex workers and drug use.
▸ Chiefly Brit.sex and shopping: a genre of popular fiction featuring wealthy and glamorous characters who typically engage in frequent sexual encounters and extravagant spending, esp. on designer goods. Freq. attrib.: designating (a novel of) this genre. Cf. bonkbuster n.
[1985Ladies' Home Jrnl. May 92 Jackie Collins, charming, vibrant and stunningly attractive, could serve as at least a minor character in one of her sex-and-shopping-among-the-rich-and-famous page-turners.] 1986Washington Post 20 May b4/3 Sure enough, her powerful brand of S&S (sex and shopping) sold 4.6 million copies and made little Judy Tarcher an overnight success. 1987Times (Nexis) 11 May A researcher employed on Conran's ‘sex and shopping’ blockbuster, Lace. 1995Daily Tel. 20 Mar. 6/4 He's not a writer because he writes the ‘other stuff’, I'm not talking about people who write sex and shopping. 2000Book May–June 52/1 The bestselling author and creator of the ‘sex and shopping’ genre is thin as a sparrow and looks a well-preserved fifty.
▪ II. sex, v.|sɛks|
[f. sex n.]
1. trans. To determine the sex of, by anatomical examination; to label as male or female.
1884Gurney Diurnal Birds Prey 173 The specimen is not sexed, neither is the sex noted on the drawing. 1888A. Newton in Zoologist Ser. iii. XII. 101 The..barbarous phrase of ‘collecting a specimen’ and then of ‘sexing’ it.
2. to sex up (slang), to give a sexual flavour to, to increase the sexual content of.
Examples of the adj. or quasi-adj. sexed-up ‘sexually aroused’ are included here for convenience.
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §361/5 Make sexy, sex it up, to introduce sex into, as a story. Ibid. §361/9 Passionate; amative; lustful..(all) sexed up. 1958Observer 24 Aug. 5/7 The business of ‘sexing up’ the titles of foreign films is..a trick well known in both France and Britain. 1959Ibid. 11 Oct. 21/4 Reads rather like an old-time boy's book sexed up and sadistified for the 1950s. 1969J. Gardner Compl. State of Death vi. 97 What do you do when you get sexed up? Mortify the flesh? 1976Nature 15 July 177/3 Erickson and Zenone tested the reaction of 35 males to two groups of females... The males..showed more aggression and less courtship towards the ‘sexed up’ females.
3. intr. To have sexual intercourse. slang.
1966‘G. Black’ You want to die, Johnny? ix. 172 The surprising thing isn't the number of teenagers who sex and dope, but rather..that there are so many that don't. 1980J. Barnett Palmprint i. 6 Maybe we sex together at yo' place.
▪ III. sex
obs. form of six. |