salacious, a.
(səˈleɪʃəs)
[f. L. salāci-, salax, f. root of salīre to leap: see -ious.]
1. Lustful, lecherous; sexually wanton.
| 1661 Feltham Lett. in Resolves, etc. x. 74 If you remember how you have seen the salacious and devouring Sparrow beat out the harmless Marten from his nest. 1675 Evelyn Terra (1729) 25 Pigeons, Poultry and other Salacious Corn-fed Birds. a 1704 T. Brown Satire agst. Woman Wks. 1730 I. 55 Let every man thou seest give new desires And not one quench the rank salacious fires. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. v. 427 Animals of the hare kind.. are remarkably salacious. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 484 A disorder of the spinal marrow incident to persons of a salacious disposition. 1865 Sat. Rev. 28 Jan. 101 The perusal of the amatory diaries and salacious confession of incipient guilt. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 992 Its [i.e. arsenic's] more immediate effect on the system is to make the people lively, combative and salacious. |
2. Tending to provoke lust. rare.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. II. xxvii, Which makes fish more salacious commonly than flesh. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 199 Feed him with Herbs..Of generous Warmth, and of salacious kind. 1775 Sterne's Sent. Journ. IV. 219 (Consequence) It is well known..that turtle is very salacious food. |
Hence saˈlaciously adv., saˈlaciousness.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Salaciousness, Salacity, Lechery, Lustfulness. 1755 Johnson, Salaciously, lecherously; lustfully. 1812 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXVIII. 509 His frequent salaciousness is an aroma, disgusting to the pure and corruptive of the temperate taste. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 564 Small doses do cause evident salaciousness and irritation of the genital organs. |