Sex
[seks] or [sɛks]
Definition
(noun.) the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles; 'she didn't want to know the sex of the foetus'.
(noun.) all of the feelings resulting from the urge to gratify sexual impulses; 'he wanted a better sex life'; 'the film contained no sex or violence'.
(noun.) either of the two categories (male or female) into which most organisms are divided; 'the war between the sexes'.
(verb.) tell the sex (of young chickens).
Checked by Gregory--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The distinguishing peculiarity of male or female in both animals and plants; the physical difference between male and female; the assemblage of properties or qualities by which male is distinguished from female.
(n.) One of the two divisions of organic beings formed on the distinction of male and female.
(n.) The capability in plants of fertilizing or of being fertilized; as, staminate and pistillate flowers are of opposite sexes.
(n.) One of the groups founded on this distinction.
Checked by Amy
Definition
n. the distinction between male and female: the characteristics by which an animal or plant is male or female gender: the female sex women generally usually with the definite article.—adj. Sex′less having no sex.—n. Sex′lessness.—adj. Sex′ūal pertaining to sex: distinguished or founded on the sex: relating to the distinct organs of the sexes.—v.t. Sex′ūalise to distinguish as sexed.—ns. Sex′ūalist one who classifies plants according to the differences of the sexes; Sexūal′ity state or quality of being sexual.—adv. Sex′ūally.—Sexual affinity the instinctive attraction of one sex for another; Sexual organs the organs of generation; Sexual selection that province of natural selection in which sex comes into play.
n. (eccles.) the office of the sixth hour originally said at midday: (mus.) the interval of a sixth.—adj. Sex′tan recurring every sixth day.
Typist: Suzy
Examples
- But practical sense told them that sex cannot be confined within marriage. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Do you think I don't know the foulness of your sex life--and her's? D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- But in many cases victory depends not so much on general vigour, but on having special weapons, confined to the male sex. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- A wife, a modest young lady, with the purely appreciative, unambitious abilities of her sex, is sure to think her husband's mind powerful. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Each acknowledges the perfection of the polarised sex-circuit. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Do you remember the sex of the child? Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- To every right-feeling person of my own sex, volumes could say no more. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- In educating the youth of both sexes, their method is admirable, and highly deserves our imitation. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- I will give only one, as likewise illustrating one step in the separation of the sexes of plants. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- From this trivial and anatomical observation is derived that vast difference betwixt the education and duties of the two sexes. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Does the degree and direction of the instinct markedly differ among different individuals or races, or between the two sexes? Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The author diverts the emperor, and his nobility of both sexes, in a very uncommon manner. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- With animals having separated sexes, there will be in most cases a struggle between the males for the possession of the females. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Has not nature scattered all the qualities which our citizens require indifferently up and down among the two sexes? Plato. The Republic.
Editor: Paula