coupling

English

Etymology

From Middle English couplynge; equivalent to couple +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈkʌplɪŋ/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Noun

coupling (countable and uncountable, plural couplings)

  1. The act of joining together to form a couple.
    • 1960 June, “Talking of trains: The new Margam yard”, in Trains Illustrated, page 323:
      It is the first British yard in which every activity of hump marshalling, except for the driving of the hump locomotive and the uncoupling and coupling of wagons, is fully automatic or drastically simplified by modern aids.
  2. A device that couples two things together.
  3. (software engineering) The degree of reliance between two or more software modules.
    Synonym: dependency
    Coordinate term: cohesion
    • 2009, Robert C. Martin, chapter 10, in Clean Code, Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 150:
      The lack of coupling means that the elements of our system are better isolated from each other and from change. This isolation makes it easier to understand each element of the system.
  4. (electronics) A connection between two electronic circuits such that a signal can pass between them.
  5. (physics) The property of physical systems that they are interacting with each other
  6. (sexuality) An act of sexual intercourse.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulation
    • 2022 March 20, Jason Bailey, “‘Basic Instinct’ at 30: A Time Capsule That Can Still Offend”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      The biggest film of March 1992 was “Basic Instinct,” an erotic thriller featuring an established movie star in explicit onscreen couplings with a sexy up-and-comer.
  7. A link between the performance of an action and the location where that action occurs or the method used to perform that action.
    • 2019, Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, page 342:
      It seems just as likely, though, that it simply never occurred to him to think about crime as something so tightly tied to place. Literary theorists and bridge engineers and police chiefs struggle with coupling.

Hyponyms

Translations
sexual intercourse — see sexual intercourse

Verb

coupling

  1. present participle and gerund of couple

Further reading

Middle English

Noun

coupling

  1. Alternative form of couplynge
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