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countable and uncountable, plural dalliances
Playful flirtation; amorous play. quotations examples
As in the season of rutting (an uncouth phrase, by which the vulgar denote that gentle dalliance, which in the well-wooded forest of Hampshire, passes between lovers of the ferine kind),
1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book V
A episode of dabbling. examples
A wasting of time in idleness or trifles. quotations examples
But, with a gesture, she put a period to this dalliance—one shouldn't palter so on an empty stomach, she might almost have said.
1922, Michael Arlen, “2/4/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit. examples