The 1956 edition doesn’t have it either. “Make out” is there, but without any reference to making out in the back seat of a car. 
I wonder if teenagers used the term that way in the 50’s?
If the above comes from a Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (the most recent one being Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, earlier editions, however, lacking the name Merriam in the title) it is worth noting that they always place definitions (and senses within definitions) in chronological order by first recorded use. Sexual intercourse is therefore a more recent meaning than either courting or petting. I suppose I could look it up in the OED if I felt like it, but … Oh what the heck, might as well get the exact dates…
Hmmm, well, the OED isn’t as helpful as I would have hoped. It lists only one sense, which it defines as “to pay amorous attention; now more usually, to copulate.” The earliest quotation is from 1580, but the first to clearly mean sex is: “1950 M. PEAKE Gormenghast xxix. 173 One of the Carvers made love to her and she had a baby.” This is from http://www.oed.com but you need a paid subscription (or a school account) to access it.
Well, so far it looks like two instances of it meaning ‘have sex’ in the 1950s, but it probably held it’s older meaning into that time as well, meanings overlapped. That could be handy considering the censorship of the times - you could imply the possibility that the character actually went that far with the murderess to ease her suspicion of him, but if called on it they could say they didn’t mean that.
Geeez Badtz, let it go! Your wife was right! It meant something different back then!
I don’t agree: given how anal the Hollywood Production Code was in the 30s-50s (you can’t call a girl a “cat”, you can’t say a girl was “easy” or “loose”, if you showed two people are sitting on a bed, each one must have one foot upon the floor), I find it hard to believe that they’d let that kind of innuendo go by. I buy the " ‘make love not war’ '60’s era phrase changed public perception of the meaning of the phrase" theory.
Fenris
First time I wondered about this was in a “Hogan’s Heros” episode. Colonel Hogan and Colonel Klink’s secretary (Helga? Olga?) were sitting in the back of Colonel Klink’s limo, chastely kissing and referred one or two times about what would happen if they were caught “making love”. Both were fully clad, and Helga’s twin braided pony tails were in perfect condition, so nothing too heavy could have been going on!
“the most recent one being
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition”
Says who? I have that one but I also bought a newer one & it says Merriam on it & its version 2.5 & date of year 2000 & its far superior to the tenth edition.
A 1576 entry of the OED online edition:
“if you make Love to me, you spoil my”
A 1483 entry: “make love . Also trans., to play”
There are entries all the way back to 888…
In 1967, the Van Morrison “single” version of “Brown Eyed Girl” deleted the phrase “makin” love in the green grass" as being too explicit. (BTW, the song was originally titled “Brown Skinned Girl”, though it’s doubtful that censorship rather than an artistic decision was involved in renaming it. According to Van the Man, Brown EYED Girl “just sounded better”.
Another instance: from the movie “High Society”, Frank Sinatra’s character sings a song titled “Mind if I Make Love to You?” to Grace Kelly’s character. Being that her character is engaged to another man, and previously married to Bing Crosby’s character, it’s pretty clear that he’s referring to wooing only.
I suspect “Make Love” started out to mean wooing and courting, and evolved into its present meaning as people took wooing and courting to their natural conclusion.
As long as we’re listing ‘50’s movie references, in "Singin’ in the Rain", Lina Lamont, upset that she has to speak words of passion to a microphone concealed in a nearby plant shrieks “I cain’t make love to a BUSH!”
Fenris
Badtz Maru, how are things in your house now?
God, Fenris, I just read your Lina Lamont quote, and now I have these ugly mental images of our president in my mind!
Yet you were allowed to call a woman a “slut”? See “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”, 1957.
Not quite, handy. The quote “if you make Love to me…” is actually from 1695. The complete citation is “1695 CONGREVE Love for L. IV. xvi, Nay, Mr. Tattle, if you make Love to me, you spoil my Design, for I intend to make you my Confident.” The second reference, “make love . Also…” is actually part of a definition (for the word groove, no less!) It looks like you did a full text search and then looked at the list of results without bothering to actually click on any of them. The list shows you the headword, a date, and part of the text containing the search entry, but the date is not for the text witht he search words in it, but the earliest use of the headword. (The verb groove, for example, dates to 1483, although the sense that includes “to make love” and “to play jazz” only goes back to 1935.) Confusing, I know.
Oh yeah…
They do. I couldn’t find anything about a Version 2.5, but I do know that the Tenth Edition is updated annually now. It’s still the tenth edition, though. M-W makes a lot of dictionaries, though. The Collegiate series is their most comprehensive apart from their unabridged (currently 3rd ed., from something like 1965. Updated more recently, though.), but its possible you found one that happens to have other features you prefer. I’m curious–what exactly does the title page say?
Man, I made way too many stylistic errors in that post for a thread about usage. Next time, I’ll try to post when I haven’t been up all night preparing for finals.
Making love and pitching woo and snuggling and petting all could be said in front of your parents, once you were steady dates, because they were accepted as the same as necking- more familiar than kissing, but nothing else specifically implied, unless you winked or nudged.
“I’m curious–what exactly does the title page say?”
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Version 2.5, 2000
BTW: Here is how the tenth edition does ‘polystichous’:
po•lys•ti•chous \pe-"lis-ti-kes\ adjective [Gk polystichos, fr. poly- + stichos row — more at distich] (ca. 1890)
: arranged in several rows
©1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Here is how my nifty updated Webster dictionary does it:
(Not all the special characters come through in paste)
Main Entry:polystichous
Pronunciation:p*-lis-ti-ks
Function:adjective
Etymology:Greek polystichos, from poly- + stichos row— more at DISTICH
Date:circa 1890
: arranged in several rows
“Slut” used to mean a woman who was literally dirty, not promiscuous.
I saw “Tall in the Saddle” on TBS yesterday and was reminded of this thread when one of the characters referred to the act of kissing as “making love”. By the time “Barbarella” came out in 1968, this had clearly changed to the act of intercourse.