The sex

Related to The sex: make love, The Six
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the female sex; women, in general.

See also: Sex

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.
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A German speaks of an Englishman as the ENGLA"NDER; to change the sex, he adds INN, and that stands for Englishwoman-- ENGLA"NDERINN.
Well, after the student has learned the sex of a great number of nouns, he is still in a difficulty, because he finds it impossible to persuade his tongue to refer to things as "he" and "she," and "him" and "her," which it has been always accustomed to refer to it as "it." When he even frames a German sentence in his mind, with the hims and hers in the right places, and then works up his courage to the utterance-point, it is no use-- the moment he begins to speak his tongue files the track and all those labored males and females come out as "its." And even when he is reading German to himself, he always calls those things "it," where as he ought to read in this way:
To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female--tomcats included, of course; a person's mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, and NOT according to the sex of the individual who wears it--for in Germany all the women either male heads or sexless ones; a person's nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, and toes are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, and conscience haven't any sex at all.
Fourthly, I would reorganizes the sexes, and distribute them accordingly to the will of the creator.
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It was more, perhaps, with an eye to the danger which lurked in this quarter, than from his abstract love of conversation with the sex, that the hangman, quickening his steps, now hastened into their society, cursing the amorous natures of Hugh and Mr Tappertit with great heartiness, at every step he took.
Suiting the action to the word, he thrust her rather suddenly and prematurely into a chair, and designing to reassure her by a little harmless jocularity, such as is adapted to please and fascinate the sex, converted his right forefinger into an ideal bradawl or gimlet, and made as though he would screw the same into her side-- whereat Miss Miggs shrieked again, and evinced symptoms of faintness.
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I take the imputation in good part, as a compliment to the just delineation of my female characters; and though I am bound to attribute much of the severity of my censors to this suspicion, I make no effort to refute it, because, in my own mind, I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be.
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Are the sexes really races, each with its own code of morality, and their mutual love a mere device of Nature to keep things going?
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I will give only one--not as a very striking case, but as likewise illustrating one step in the separation of the sexes of plants, presently to be alluded to.
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the sexes will be robbed of one of the first and most thrilling motives of romance, the motive of As You Like It, the romance of wearing each other's clothes.
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And what is the fundamental doctrine which has given rise to so much bitterness and aversion?--Merely this: that the sexes are at bottom ANTAGONISTIC--that is to say, as different as blue is from yellow, and that the best possible means of rearing anything approaching a desirable race is to preserve and to foster this profound hostility.
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This enigma can be explained by the ovopathy concept, which addresses the determination of both the sex and the condition of the progeny.
Where the boys aren't: dioxin and the sex ratio. (Commentaries)

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