as in womanizing
formal + disapproving
to have sexual intercourse
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Recent Examples of fornicating
These are unhappy hedonists, boozing and fornicating for lack of fulfillment.
—
Dan Stahl, New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2026
Dan Stahl, New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fornicating
Verb
-
Philip Seymour Hoffman played him on Broadway as a near-psychotic, his philandering very much to blame for the fall of his elder son, Biff.—
Chris Jones,
New York Daily News,
10 Apr. 2026
-
The writer reckons with the charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
And finally, wouldn’t being near-perfectly still for an hour make a pair of copulating octopuses ridiculously exposed to predators?—
Jacek Krywko,
ArsTechnica,
2 Apr. 2026
-
After copulating, the two males lay immobile on the seafloor as the female swam away.—
Jack Guy,
CNN Money,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The cam has followed Jackie and Shadow, who have been mating since 2018, and made the birds worldwide celebrities and regular fixtures of morning TV shows.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Apr. 2026
-
But these flourishes don’t seem essential for mating.—
Cody Cottier,
Scientific American,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Zeus did not approve of his daughter fooling around with this mortal roughneck hunter and put out a hit on Orion.—
Mike Lynch,
Twin Cities,
8 Mar. 2026
-
The transition was rough for Ansari, who wasn’t fluent in English and often got in trouble for fooling around in school.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fornicating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fornicating. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
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