liaison
/lɪˈeɪz(ə)n
/ /lɪˈeɪzɒn/noun [mass noun]
1Communication or cooperation which facilitates a close working relationship between people or organizations: the head porter works in close liaison with the reception office...
- Management of toxicities in the community requires close liaison with the hospital team, and severe toxicity requires immediate admission.
- He said the Institute was putting in place a framework for the resolution of the problem and towards this end, it would work in close liaison with the residents, students, community leaders and the Gardai.
- On the contrary, ‘lobbying’ must be applied vigorously in close liaison with constituent social movements.
Synonyms
cooperation, contact, association, connection, collaboration;
communication, interchange, affiliation, alliance, partnership, link, linkage, tie-up, hook-up
1.1 [count noun] A person who acts as a link to assist communication or cooperation between people: he’s our liaison with a number of interested parties...
- If you want to interview someone in particular, see if a media liaison can arrange it for you.
- This eight-week program trains parents to be active participants and advocates in their children's education and to share these skills as community liaisons.
- Advisers serve advisees as advocates, guides, group leaders, community builders, liaisons with parents, and evaluation coordinators.
Synonyms
intermediary, mediator, middleman, contact, contact man/woman/person, link, linkman, linkwoman, linkperson, go-between, representative, agent, interceder, factor
1.2 [count noun] A sexual relationship, especially one that is secret or illicit: she abandoned her loyalty to her absent husband in favour of a sexual liaison with William...
- In desperation, she entered warily into a sexual liaison with an army captain, who offered some promise of economic stability.
- In 1613, she was accused of having a sexual liaison with a neighbour and to clear her name, went to the Church Court.
- Above and below, divisions blur and the long-established equilibrium is knocked off balance amid revelations of illicit sexual liaisons and dubious business dealings.
Synonyms
love affair, affair, relationship, romance, attachment, fling, intrigue, amour, affair of the heart, involvement, amorous entanglement, romantic entanglement, entanglement;
flirtation, dalliance
informal hanky-panky
British informal bit on the side, carry-on
2The binding or thickening agent of a sauce, often based on egg yolks.A liaison of egg yolk and/or a little cream can be added at the end to enrich it and make it even more velvety.
3 Phonetics (In French and other languages) the sounding of a consonant that is normally silent at the end of a word, because the next word begins with a vowel.Perhaps, in the final analysis, French liaison and linking in English may not be so different after all.
3.1Introduction of a consonant between a word that ends in a vowel and another that begins with a vowel, as in English law and order.
Origin
Mid 17th century (as a cookery term): from French, from lier 'to bind'.
Originally a cookery term, liaison is from French lier ‘to bind’. The more general use of the word to mean ‘intimate connection’ or more specifically ‘sexual relationship’ dates from the early 19th century. The verb liaise, ‘communicate and cooperate’, was used from the 1920s as military slang formed from liaison.
Rhymes
- orange-bellied
- orange bergamot
- orange blossom
- orange book
- orange box
- orange brandy
- orange butter
- orange chip
- orange color
- orange-colored
- orange colour
- orange-coloured
- Orange County
- orange cowrie
- orange crate
- oranged
- Orange Day
- orange dog
- orange dove
- orange flower
- orange-flower oil
- orange flower water
- orange fly
- Orange Free State
- orange grass