light-o'-love
Americannoun
-
a lover.
-
a prostitute.
Etymology
Origin of light-o'-love
First recorded in 1570–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A mere light-o'-love and saucebox, as she had always herself called the miller's wife, was wholly unworthy to occupy, even in pity, the thoughts of so holy a man.
From A House-Party Don Gesualdo and A Rainy June by Ouida
Land of the Greater Love—men call it this; No light-o'-love sets here an ambuscade; No tender torture of the secret kiss Makes sick the spirit and the soul afraid.
From The Money Master, Volume 5. by Parker, Gilbert
A man of letters who would parody his early style is no better than the ancient light-o'-love who wears a wig and reddens her cheeks.
From Confessions of a Young Man by Moore, George (George Augustus)
You imply that I am a trifler, a light-o'-love.
From The Prince of Graustark by McCutcheon, George Barr
Hylas, the not exactly "comic man," but light-o'-love and inconstant shepherd, was rather a bone of contention among critics of the book's own century.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
