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Glite Dictionary
on third base

on third base

9.6
Close to having sex with someone you are dating
  • idiom
  • NSFW
translation icon : cerca de lograrlo
  • I think they are on third base after that date.

Examples

  • She laughed when her friend joked that he was already on third base after one date.

  • Some people think it's old-fashioned to talk about relationships in terms of being on third base.

  • By the end of the movie, they were clearly on third base.

  • Are you sure they're on third base now?

  • After a wonderful dinner, he felt like he was on third base with her, ready for the next step.

  • They talked for hours and it seemed like they were on third base in their relationship.

  • After their romantic weekend getaway, she felt they were on third base and close to taking things further.

How Close

home
150 2.7
on third base
  • NSFW
9.6
second base
  • US
10 3.7
first base
  • Informal
8 4.4

Surface Forms

on third base main

Morphology

on + third + base

Although the words 'on', 'third', and 'base' have clear literal meanings, the MWE relies on a culture-specific baseball metaphor mapping bases to stages of intimacy/relationship progression. A B1 learner who only knows the constituent words and lacks that cultural/sports knowledge will not be able to predict the idiomatic sexual/relationship sense, so the expression is not compositionally transparent.

Etymology

The expression on third base comes from baseball: a runner on third base is only one step from 'home', where you score. People used that picture for stages of a relationship, so on third base came to mean 'close to achieving a particular goal', often 'sexual intimacy'.