0 a word said by someone to a partner during sex when the sex becomes too rough, to show that they want to stop, especially in BDSM (= sex that involves, for example, tying a partner up, or giving and receiving pain for pleasure):
In the American BDSM subculture, three safe words are widespread.
A safe word lets your partner know that they need to stop what they're doing and check in with you.
For some reason best known to sadomasochists themselves, popular safe words include "pickle" and "radish", apparently.
