carnal knowledge/relations• It is the threesome of snake, Eve, and Adam which, according to the Bible, makes for carnal knowledge.• The fruit was carnal knowledge, and everybody from Thomas Aquinas to Milton knew it.• But carnal knowledgesours his relationship with his clients, and paradise is lost.
—carnallyadverbadv
Examples from the Corpus
carnal• It is notable primarily for its lack of carnal interest.• The fruit was carnalknowledge, and everybody from Thomas Aquinas to Milton knew it.• In the end she opts for the serious, renouncescarnal love, and decides to become a Catholic.• She knew what loving meant perhaps, but little of violence and carnal needs.• I thought about carnalpleasure, and looked around and felt certain that something cataclysmic was well on its way.• But not, he swears, in a carnal sense.• He had had to confess his carnalthoughts to Father Devlin and had been severely censured.
Origincarnal
(1400-1500)Late Latincarnalis, from Latincaro“flesh”