body languagen.

1885 J. F. Rowbotham Hist. Mus. I. iii. 72 As man's..ideas became more complex, he began to find that this old body-language grew daily less and less able to render with due precision the thought which struggled for expression.

1917 J. B. Watson in Psychol. Rev. 24 342 Implicit habit responses: ‘thinking’, by which we mean subvocal talking, general body language habits, bodily sets or attitudes which are not easily observable without instrumentation or experimental aid.

1920 Little Theatre Rev. 4 Nov. 1/1 Body-language is a very important part of orderly production, quite as important as the spoken word, and at present it should be studied more attentively.

1949 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 49 168/1 The supervisor must..recognize that the girl is telling in ‘body language’ something which she cannot put in words.

1970 J. Fast Body Lang. (1971) i. 11 To understand this unspoken body language, kinesics experts often have to take into consideration cultural differences and environmental differences.

1972 T. McHugh Time of Buffalo xiii. 152 Buffalo also express themselves in ‘body language’, assuming certain positions or moving in a particular way.

1983 Chem. Engin. 7 Feb. 90 Various types of ‘body language’—such as shuffling feet, yawns, glances at watches..and so on—may signal that it's time to call for a break.

2007 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 27 May 13/1 An adversary in poker will develop increasingly sensitive radar for any twitch or body language that leaks through—the ‘tell’.