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.
His is a heart that never played The light-o'-love to wife or maid, But reverenced all womankind Before he found one to his mind.
From Lawrence Clavering by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)
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
You imply that I am a trifler, a light-o'-love.
From The Prince of Graustark by McCutcheon, George Barr
They had been distinctly interesting to Derek, these glimpses of a joyous, idle, light-o'-love life, with a tragic element never very far below its surface, so different from his own gray career of business.
From The Inner Shrine by King, Basil
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
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.
