cupboard love

American  

noun

1. a personal attachment that appears to be motivated by love but in fact stems from the hope of gain.

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cupboard love British  

noun

1. a show of love inspired only by some selfish or greedy motive

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Other Word Forms

• cupboard lover noun

Etymology

Origin of cupboard love

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

Ancient Greeks had no word for cupboard love, but, undoubtedly, this is a love the vast majority of animal pets may feel for us.

From The Guardian • Jul. 16, 2019

Perhaps my enthusiasm for California sounds a little like cupboard love.

From The Smiling Hill-Top And Other California Sketches by Winslow, Carleton M.

It would display, for the careful eye, the hatless Kelly filleting a flying fish, against the bunker hatch, for his friend the cat, who should be gazing up with cupboard love at her unshaven protector.

From The Bonadventure A Random Journal of an Atlantic Holiday by Blunden, Edmund

So no one could accuse Dolls of cupboard love.

From Aileen Aroon, A Memoir With other Tales of Faithful Friends and Favourites by Stables, Gordon

Moreover, love and respect move in the direction of activity, and if everything comes the child's way there will be little love, except "cupboard love," going the other way.

From Rural Life and the Rural School by Kennedy, Joseph