osculate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb be intermediate between two taxonomic groups
    • These species osculate
  2. verb have at least three points in common with
    • one curve osculates the other
    • these two surfaces osculate
  3. verb touch with the lips or press the lips (against someone's mouth or other body part) as an expression of love, greeting, etc.
    buss; snog; kiss.
    • The newly married couple kissed
    • She kissed her grandfather on the forehead when she entered the room

WordNet

Os"cu*late transitive verb
Etymology
L. osculatus, p. p. of osculari to kiss, fr. osculum a little mouth, a kiss, dim. of os mouth. See Oral, and cf. Oscillate.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Osculated ; present participle & verbal noun Osculating
Definitions
  1. To kiss.
  2. (Geom.) To touch closely, so as to have a common curvature at the point of contact. See Osculation, 2.
Os"cu*late intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To kiss one another; to kiss.
  2. (Geom.) To touch closely. See Osculation, 2.
  3. (Biol.) To have characters in common with two genera or families, so as to form a connecting link between them; to interosculate. See Osculant.

Webster 1913