Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Reduction or lessening of a swelling, especially of a swollen organ or part.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Diminution of swelling: opposed to intumescence.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun rare Diminution of swelling; subsidence of anything swollen.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The act of subsiding from a swollen state, especially the relaxation of an erect
penis .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun diminution of swelling; the subsidence of anything swollen
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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“Give me, give me, give me, give me detumescence…”
HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH News from Mad Plato 2009
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In the past, it had always ended with Billy's orgasm, followed by detumescence, a poorly aimed kiss near the ear, a slipping away into stertorous sleep.
Sympathy 2009
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“Give me, give me, give me, give me detumescence…”
Archive 2009-03-01 News from Mad Plato 2007
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The social and civil wars preparing the ground for the final flowering of the Republic and its detumescence with the decapitation of Cicero, to be replaced by the bloodswollen priapism of the Empire...
HBO's Rome S2 Ep 8 2007
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The deep connections between Shelley's satire and contemporary political events cannot be overlooked, for both Caroline of Brunswick and the plays heroine, Iona Taurina, function as highly visible emblems of the mother-whore, that revolutionary icon of the woman-in-public whose very presence threatens to feminize the public sphere and thus to hasten the collapsethe detumescence, to borrow an image central to Shelley's playof masculine, patriarchal order.
Shelley 2001
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The foolishness begins immediately on detumescence, amusing questions like, what kind of word has gone out to keep everybody away from Geli but me?
Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978
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The shift in autonomic, nervous control causes the reversal of circulation and the detumescence of the swollen organs in both sexes.
Come, Come Now Benda, Clemens E. 1973
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Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man the acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend to swing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten in the mood of repugnance and exhaustion.
Taboo and Genetics A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of the Family Melvin Moses Knight 1934
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Regarding the phenomena of detumescence, we must not hold them to be necessarily morbid when they make their appearance during the last years of the second period of childhood; but when this occurs earlier, during the tenth or eleventh year of life for instance, some suspicion may reasonably be aroused.
The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll 1900
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This applies equally to both components of the sexual impulse, to the phenomena of detumescence as well as to those of contrectation.
The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll 1900
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