facts of life

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fact of life

n. pl. facts of life

1. Something unavoidable that must be faced or dealt with.

2. facts of life The basic physiological functions involved in sex and reproduction. Often used with the.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

facts of life

pl n

the facts of life the details of sexual behaviour and reproduction, esp as told to children

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

facts of life - the sexual activity of conceiving and bearing offspring

procreation, reproduction, breeding

sex activity, sexual activity, sexual practice - activities associated with sexual intercourse; "they had sex in the back seat"

miscegenation, crossbreeding, interbreeding - reproduction by parents of different races (especially by white and non-white persons)

multiplication, propagation, generation - the act of producing offspring or multiplying by such production

Translations

sexuálna výchova

facts of life

npl (ped, euph) cómo se hacen los bebés

References in classic literature ?

In Prince Andrew's eyes Speranski was the man he would himself have wished to be- one who explained all the facts of life reasonably, considered important only what was rational, and was capable of applying the standard of reason to everything.

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She was frank, poor darling, because she had nothing to conceal, assured because she knew of nothing to be on her guard against; and with no better preparation than this, she was to be plunged overnight into what people evasively called "the facts of life."

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"Do you know, I sometimes catch myself wishing that I, too, were blind to the facts of life and only knew its fancies and illusions.

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She had a genteel refinement which shuddered at the facts of life, she looked upon the bodily functions as indecent, she had all sorts of euphemisms for common objects, she always chose an elaborate word as more becoming than a simple one: the brutality of these men was like a whip on her thin white shoulders, and she shuddered with voluptuous pain.

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In truth, they were children together, so far as love was concerned, and they were as naive and immature in the expression of their love as a pair of children, and this despite the fact that she was crammed with a university education and that his head was full of scientific philosophy and the hard facts of life.

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(Of course all literature is necessarily based on the ordinary facts of life, which we may call by the more general name of Reality.) Carried to the extreme, Realism may become ignoble, dealing too frankly or in unworthy spirit with the baser side of reality, and in almost all ages this sort of Realism has actually attempted to assert itself in literature.

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That is what a woman ought to be: she ought to produce the effect of exquisite music." Plain women he regarded as he did the other severe facts of life, to be faced with philosophy and investigated by science.

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The facts of life can, but they have no place in the logic of youth.

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In New York City, when he first went there to live and before he became confused and disconcerted by the facts of life, Enoch went about a good deal with young men.

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"Well," I began, "as you may guess, generally speaking, elephant hunters are a rough set of men, who do not trouble themselves with much beyond the facts of life and the ways of Kafirs.

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His young mind hungered for plain facts of life, after the long course of speculation and of mysticism on which he had been trained.

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The dining-room and hall revealed theirs openly, but the drawing-room's was match-boarded--because the facts of life must be concealed from ladies?