second base
16
8.0
- noun
- /ˈsɛkənd beɪs/
- NSFW
:
llegar a la segunda base
- I've never gone past second base with a guy.
- get to second base
- go to second base
- make it to second base
Examples
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It's been a while since I got you to second base.
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They shared a romantic moment, and I could tell they were ready to go to second base.
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You want to be able to go to second base, right?
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And I was gonna let you get to second base.
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Well, someone got to second base last night.
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So tell me, did you get to second base?
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The two of them had merely been on second base, hooking up.
Fiction book (2001) -
Figured I'd try for second base, Anders.
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Seems like my whole life I've been fightin' guys off, and now I find one that I really dig and, oh, I don't know, I can't seem to get to second base with him, you know?
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After their many dates, they finally reached second base during their night out.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sexual/romantic meaning is a culturally specific idiomatic extension of the baseball metaphor and is not a straightforward composition of 'second' (follows the first) + 'base' (a station). A B1 learner who knows the literal constituents but has not been exposed to the baseball-to-relationship mapping would not predict the sense 'touching or fondling above the waist', so prior cultural exposure is required.
Etymology
Second base as a slang term comes from the baseball idea of bases as steps in a game, and one popular story says people used those steps to talk about stages of a date. So second base became the name for the step meaning 'touching or fondling above the waist'.