pleasure
IPA: pɫˈɛʒɝ
noun
- (uncountable) A state of being pleased or contented; gratification.
- (countable) A person, thing or action that causes enjoyment.
- (uncountable) Sexual enjoyment.
- (uncountable) One's preference.
- (formal, uncountable) The will or desire of someone or some agency in power.
verb
- (transitive) To give or afford pleasure to.
- (transitive) To give sexual pleasure to.
- (intransitive, dated) To take pleasure; to seek or pursue pleasure.
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Examples of "pleasure" in Sentences
- A QUAKER (says Hood) makes a pleasure of his business, and then, for relaxation, makes a _business_ of his _pleasure_.
- Since in God there is no pleasure that is not good, what difference can there be between the _good pleasure_ and the _will_ of God?
- If it is a claim about the common-sense pleasure concept, for example, then it is problematical to stipulate, as was done above, that ˜pleasure™ includes all positive experience.
- "Women" -- he said to me last night -- "are the only pleasure in life -- men and hunting bring content and happiness, work brings satisfaction, but women and their ways are the only _pleasure_."
- As I make use of the word _delight_ to express the sensation which accompanies the removal of pain or danger, so, when I speak of positive pleasure, I shall for the most part call it simply _pleasure_.
- Sexual excitement is accompanied throughout by a sensation of pleasure, specifically known as _voluptuous pleasure_, the _voluptuous sensation_, or simply _voluptuousness_ (in Latin, _libido sexualis_).
- The least interest could make him abandon his honor; the smallest pleasure could seduce him from his interest; the most frivolous caprice was sufficient to counterbalance his pleasure* [** missing period]
- You know as well as I do that to go to Brookroyd is always a pleasure to me, and that to one who has so little change, and so few friends as I have, it must be a _great pleasure_, but I am not at all times in the mood or circumstances to take my pleasure.
- ˜pleasure™ sometimes to refer to (a) a certain kind of mental state or sensation and at other times to refer to (b) non-mental items, such as actions, activities, and pursuits that do or can cause pleasurable mental states (cf. the way in which someone might refer to sexual activity as a bodily pleasure).
- Various objections might be made to motivational hedonism: that we are often motivated by things that do not in fact maximize our pleasure, such as motivation to step under a shower that one takes to be suitably warm but which is in fact scalding hot; that not every pleasure that our options for action make available to us motivates us; or that the very idea of maximum ˜pleasure over pain™ or
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