schmusen

18th century, borrowed via Rotwelsch (thieves’ cant) from Yiddish שמועסן (shmuesn). Cognate with English schmooze. The sense “to cuddle” developed (via “to flirt”) over the course of the 20th century and appears to have become predominant around 1980.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃmuːzən/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

schmusen (weak, third-person singular present schmust, past tense schmuste, past participle geschmust, auxiliary haben)

1. to cuddle, fondle, canoodle

   Synonyms: kuscheln, knuddeln, liebkosen

   • 2020 October 17, Philipp Brandstädter, “Umstrittene Wildtierhaltung: Jetzt mal ganz natürlich”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Vor einer Woche stand Säbelantilope auf dem Speiseplan, diesmal der Ziegenbock, mit dem die Kinder keine zwei Stunden zuvor noch im Streichelzoo geschmust haben.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (Austria, informal) to kiss passionately; to neck; to make out; to smooch

   Synonym: knutschen

3. (archaic) to flirt, flatter

   Synonyms: flirten, schäkern, schmeicheln, tändeln

4. (archaic) to schmooze (to talk casually, especially in order to sell something or gain an advantage)

   Synonyms: sich anbiedern, schöntun, werben; plaudern, quatschen, schwatzen

• Schmus
• Schmu

• “schmusen” in Duden online
• “schmusen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “schmusen” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• Kluge, Friedrich (1989), “schmusen”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 645

schmusen (third-person singular present schmuust, past participle geschmusst, auxiliary verb hunn)

1. (transitive or intransitive) to speak
2. (slang) (transitive or intransitive) to kiss, to cuddle