Noun

(uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.

* 1847 , , (Jane Eyre), Chapter XVIII

Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.

(uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author= , title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse . Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

(countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.

The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

(countable) Any rational expression, reason.

* South

difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason

* Shakespeare

Sure he that made us with such large discourse , / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused.

(social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after ).

* 2007 , Christine L. Marran, Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture (page 137)

Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman.

* 2008 , Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)

But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

(obsolete) Dealing; transaction.

* Beaumont and Fletcher

Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.

Noun

(en noun)

The sense of touch; feeling.

*

Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?

* J. Le Conte

Now, sight is a very refined tact .

(music) The stroke in beating time.

Sensitive mental touch; peculiar skill or faculty; nice perception or discernment; ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances.

*

He had formed plans not inferior in grandeur and boldness to those of Richelieu, and had carried them into effect with a tact and wariness worthy of Mazarin.

*

A tact' which surpassed the '''tact''' of her sex as much as the '''tact''' of her sex surpassed the ' tact of ours.

The ability to deal with embarrassing situations carefully and without doing or saying anything that will annoy or upset other people; careful consideration in dealing with others to avoid giving offense; the ability to say the right thing.

By the use of tact , she was able to calm her jealous husband.

I used tact when I told my fat uncle that his extra weight made him look better.

(psychology) A verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise).

* 2013 , Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment

Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially.