MISSING ON KISSING IN THE DICTIONARY
Something is missing from The Oxford English Dictionary's
definition of kissing.
Something important. It is found all around the planet. It is very often kissed, maybe more than a billion times every day. In and of itself, it is one of the most beautiful things in the world
Kiss is defined as "To press or touch with the lips (at the same time compressing and then separating them)."
Well, it seems to me if we follow those instructions we'd be doing something only resembling a kiss. Try It yourself. Press your lips to the back of your hand. Now compress them. Now separate them. That may be the best way to kiss the ground, but surely any kissee surely would be disappointed with this cold press-compress-and-separate routine.
And there's no mention of how to complete it, so whatever
it is, it might be eternal.
I think I'll seek instruction elsewhere.
Speaking of eternal, the Gulness Book of Records says that the longest kiss lasted more than 17 days, How is this possIble? No details are given. The longest in a movie was 3 minutes, Now, that I can believe, but 17 days?
One man kissed 4,525 women in 8 hours. I'd sure like to know how he found so many volunteers.
But back to the venerable dictionary. It seems that one can be kiss-worthy and kiss-wise. I'd say I'm the former, and I'll bet that fellow with the four-thousand women is the latter.
Moving on down the OED page, we find that to kiss the cup means to sip whiskey. That's one I way to make others seem more kiss-worthy.
Tears and pain can be kissed away, but I'd say whiskey works better.
One can steal a kiss. I'd return it if I did.
Good heavens, I see that kiss comes from cuss. But let's leave that to the etymologists.
Now to the matter of what's missing. Most of the full-page definition is spent on the many things that are kissed, First are the usual: hands, cheeks, mouths, and lips. Then there's the Bible, and I already mentioned the ground. Apparently birds kiss each other, and so do billiard and croquet balls. Poets provide metaphorical kisses, Shelley
wrote of the sea kissing the shore, the mountains the heavens, moonbeams the sea, tree branches each other, and the morning the sleep from a beauty's eyes. Lovely words indeed, but no mention of the most important object of a kiss.
So, what is it that's missing on kissing in The Oxford Enflish Dictionary?
An other's lips!?
___________
kiss // v. & n.
v.
1 tr. touch with the lips, esp. as a sign of love, affection, greeting, or reverence.
2 tr. express (greeting or farewell) in this way.
3 absol. (of two persons) touch each others' lips in this way.
4 tr. (also absol.) (of a snooker ball etc. in motion) lightly touch (another ball).
n.
1 a touch with the lips in kissing.
2 the slight impact when one snooker ball etc. lightly touches another.
3 a small sweetmeat or piece of confectionery.
kiss and tell recount one's sexual exploits.
kiss a person's arse coarse slang act obsequiously towards a person.
kiss away remove (tears etc.) by kissing.
kiss the dust submit abjectly; be overthrown.
kiss goodbye to colloq. accept the loss of.
kiss the ground prostrate oneself as a token of homage.
kiss off esp. N.Amer. slang
1 dismiss, get rid of.
2 go away, die.
kiss the rod accept chastisement submissively.