Con`ver*sa"tion (?), n. [OE.
conversacio (in senses 1 & 2), OF. conversacion, F.
conversation, fr. L. conversatio frequent abode in
a place, intercourse, LL. also, manner of life.]
1. General course of conduct;
behavior. [Archaic]
Let your conversation be as it becometh the
gospel.
Philip. i. 27.
2. Familiar intercourse; intimate
fellowship or association; close acquaintance.
"Conversation with the best company." Dryden.
I set down, out of long experience in business and
much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to
this business.
Bacon.
3. Commerce; intercourse; traffic.
[Obs.]
All traffic and mutual conversation.
Hakluyt.
4. Colloquial discourse; oral interchange
of sentiments and observations; informal dialogue.
The influence exercised by his [Johnson's]
conversation was altogether without a parallel.
Macaulay.
5. Sexual intercourse; as, criminal
conversation.
Syn. -- Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity;
discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat. --
Conversation, Talk. There is a looser sense of
these words, in which they are synonymous; there is a stricter
sense, in which they differ. Talk is usually broken,
familiar, and versatile. Conversation is more continuous
and sustained, and turns ordinarily upon topics or higher
interest. Children talk to their parents or to their
companions; men converse together in mixed assemblies. Dr.
Johnson once remarked, of an evening spent in society, that there
had been a great deal of talk, but no
conversation.
