fornication : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: fornication	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for fornication
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
fornication n voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes with marriage relations; "adultery is often cited as grounds for divorce" Synonym(s): adultery, criminal conversation, fornication
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Fornication \For`ni*ca"tion\, n. [F. fornication, L. fornicatio.] 1. Unlawful sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person; the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as does not by law amount to adultery. Note: In England, the offense, though cognizable in the ecclesiastical courts, was not at common law subject to secular prosecution. In the United States it is indictable in some States at common law, in others only by statute. --Whartyon. 2. (Script.) (a) Adultery. (b) Incest. (c) Idolatry.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Fornication in every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See {ADULTERY}.) But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in its ordinary sense. It frequently means a forsaking of God or a following after idols (Isa. 1:2; Jer. 2:20; Ezek. 16; Hos. 1:2; 2:1-5; Jer. 3:8,9).