Lesbian
[lez-bee-uh n]
- of or relating to Lesbos.
- (usually lowercase) of, relating to, or characteristic of female homosexuality.
- (usually lowercase) erotic; sensual.
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- an inhabitant of Lesbos.
- (usually lowercase) a female homosexual.
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Origin of Lesbian
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lesbian
Contemporary Examples
It said: “Tonie Tobias, Information Technology, President of GLEN, Gay and Lesbian Employee Network.”
She told a story of a fellow employee who identifies as a butch dyke (a lesbian who takes on a more masculine identity).
And who better to do that with than the actress who is playing the object of said (alleged) lesbian affection in the flick?
And as bad as it might be for gay or lesbian people, the discrimination is markedly worse for transgender people.
Much more common is the African American lesbian couple in the Deep South raising children at or below the poverty line.
Historical Examples
It is called Lesbian love or saphism; and the women inverts are known as tribades.
The Sexual QuestionAugust Forel
The style of carving of the cymatium with its astragal should be the Lesbian.
Ten Books on ArchitectureVitruvius
No; then of course she was the tenth—and was not she "the Lesbian maid?"
"Even the Lesbian swan was called the fair-haired," replied Florus.
The Emperor, CompleteGeorg Ebers
These years also constitute the golden age of Lesbian culture.
lesbian
- a female homosexual
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- of or characteristic of lesbians
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Word Origin
C19: from the homosexuality attributed to Sappho
Lesbian
- a native or inhabitant of Lesbos
- the Aeolic dialect of Ancient Greek spoken in Lesbos
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- of or relating to Lesbos
- of or relating to the poetry of Lesbos, esp that of Sappho
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for lesbian
adj.
1590s, "pertaining to the island of Lesbos," from Latin Lesbius, from Greek lesbios "of Lesbos," Greek island in northeastern Aegean Sea (the name originally may have meant "wooded"), home of Sappho, great lyric poet whose erotic and romantic verse embraced women as well as men, hence meaning "relating to homosexual relations between women" (1890; lesbianism in this sense is attested from 1870) and the noun, first recorded 1925. Before this, the principal figurative use (common in 17c.) was lesbian rule (c.1600) a mason's rule of lead, of a type used on Lesbos, which could be bent to fit the curves of a molding; hence, "pliant morality or judgment."
And this is the nature of the equitable, a correction of law where it is defective owing to its universality. ... For when the thing is indefinite the rule also is indefinite, like the leaden rule used in making the Lesbian moulding; the rule adapts itself to the shape of the stone and is not rigid, and so too the decree is adapted to the facts. [Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics"]
Cf. also tribadism.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
lesbian
(lĕz′bē-ə-n)- A woman whose sexual orientation is to other women.
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- Relating to or being a lesbian.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
lesbian
A homosexual woman. (See also gay.)
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.