cruising
English
Etymology
By surface analysis, cruise + -ing.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkɹuːzɪŋ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -uːzɪŋ
Noun
cruising (countable and uncountable, plural cruisings)
- Sailing about without an exact destination, especially for pleasure.
- Cruising is a popular activity among the over-60s.
- 2000, Jim Howard, Charles J. Doane, Handbook of Offshore Cruising: The Dream and Reality of Modern Ocean Cruising, Sheridan House, Inc., →ISBN, page 13:
- Maintenance time takes away from the time for sightseeing, fishing, reading, or the other things that were the original objectives of cruising.
- Driving around without an exact destination, as a social activity.
- Cruising was a popular pasttime for teens in this area at the time.
- (child development, of a baby) Walking unsteadily while holding onto objects such as furniture and walls: a stage in the development of ambulation (unassisted walking), typically occurring around age 10 months.
- Coordinate term: toddling
- Cruising is a fun stage for the baby, even though there are going to be some mild falls and crying during the course of it.
- (slang) Walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner for casual sex, especially among gay men.
- There was a fair amount of cruising going on at the gay party.
- 1927, Aaron J. Rosanoff, “Sexual Psychopaths”, in Manual of Psychiatry, 6th edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., →OCLC, page 203:
- Within their [homosexuals'] own group, too, there is considerable social discrimination. In the most “respectable” class are those who do no “cruising,” i.e., picking up “friends” at random in the parks or streets.
- 1940 January-June, Allen Bernstein, Millions of Queers (Our Homo America), [Unpublished MS of the United States National Library of Medicine], →OCLC, page 15:
- The press screamed headlines about castrating perverts, but the parks and cruising places remained as populous as ever. And with good cause.
- 1957 May, Richard Mayer, “Quote Cure Unquote... a la [Edward] Bergler”, in Mattachine Review, volume III, number 5, Los Angeles: Mattachine Society, →ISSN, page 22:
- For example, when a homosexual goes cruising, he runs the risk of being arrested, blackmailed or beaten up. Therefore, [Bergler concludes] homosexuals want to be hurt, humiliated, defeated and destroyed; they are all psychic masochists.
- 1970, Gerald Walker, Cruising, New York: Stein and Day, →ISBN, page 104:
- But even so, the gay boys who are out cruising aren’t being especially cautious. They’ve even made a pickup gambit out of it. “If that bulge in your pants isn’t a knife, let’s go for a walk.” That sort of thing.
- 1990, Allan Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two, New York: The Free Press, →OCLC, page 114:
- Gay cruising in hotel bars was quiet and covert, but still charged with erotic possibilities and an awareness that there was little time to waste.
- (bodybuilding, slang) Reducing the dosage of PEDs instead of cycling them off.
- Coordinate term: blasting
- (transport) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text
{{rfdef}}.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
driving around as a social activity
|
Verb
cruising
- present participle and gerund of cruise
Further reading
- cruising (driving) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- cruising for sex on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from English cruising
Noun
cruising m (uncountable)
- (gay slang)
- hacer cruising
- to cruise