love
- a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
- sexual passion or desire.
- a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
- (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
- a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.
- sexual intercourse; copulation.
- (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
- affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one's neighbor.
- strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
- the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love.
- the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
- Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing.
- a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.
- to have love or affection for: All her pupils love her.
- to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).
- to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music.
- to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight.
- to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.
- to have sexual intercourse with.
- to have love or affection for another person; be in love.
- love up, to hug and cuddle: She loves him up every chance she gets.
- for love,
- out of affection or liking; for pleasure.
- without compensation; gratuitously: He took care of the poor for love.
- for the love of, in consideration of; for the sake of: For the love of mercy, stop that noise.
- in love, infused with or feeling deep affection or passion: a youth always in love.
- in love with, feeling deep affection or passion for (a person, idea, occupation, etc.); enamored of: in love with the girl next door; in love with one's work.
- make love,
- to embrace and kiss as lovers.
- to engage in sexual activity.
- no love lost, dislike; animosity: There was no love lost between the two brothers.
Origin of love
Synonyms for love
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comAntonyms for love
Related Words for love
emotion, tenderness, appreciation, taste, fondness, lust, yearning, passion, affection, respect, friendship, devotion, infatuation, lover, prize, treasure, prefer, admire, choose, cherishExamples from the Web for love
Contemporary Examples of love
“I love my job and I love my city and I am committed to the work here,” he said in a statement.
You just travel light with carry-on luggage, go to cities that you love, and get to hang out with all your friends.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s GreatnessMarlow Stern
January 7, 2015
And we have a lot of great guests this season: Greta Gerwig, Natasha Lyonne, Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi is back—I love that guy.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s GreatnessMarlow Stern
January 7, 2015
It upsets me because I used to really, and still do sometimes, love the articles Salon writes.
He talked about his love for his daughters, Taelor and Sydni, who were still very young at the time.
Historical Examples of love
It had the pure and placid expression of the human soul, when it dwells in love and peace.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
I fly to seek a kindlier sphere, Since thou hast ceased to love me here.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
I believe he has given the Athenians philtres to make them love him.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
This so excited the admiration of Speusippus, that a love of philosophy was kindled within him.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
Though younger than myself, she reciprocated the love she had inspired.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
love
- (tr) to have a great attachment to and affection for
- (tr) to have passionate desire, longing, and feelings for
- (tr) to like or desire (to do something) very much
- (tr) to make love to
- (intr) to be in love
- an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing
- (as modifier)love song; love story
- a deep feeling of sexual attraction and desire
- wholehearted liking for or pleasure in something
- Christianity
- God's benevolent attitude towards man
- man's attitude of reverent devotion towards God
- Also: my love a beloved person: used esp as an endearment
- British informal a term of address, esp but not necessarily for a person regarded as likable
- (in tennis, squash, etc) a score of zero
- fall in love to become in love
- for love without payment
- for love or money (used with a negative) in any circumstancesI wouldn't eat a snail for love or money
- for the love of for the sake of
- in love in a state of strong emotional attachment and usually sexual attraction
- make love
- to have sexual intercourse (with)
- archaicto engage in courtship (with)
Word Origin for love
Word Origin and History for love
Old English lufu "love, affection, friendliness," from Proto-Germanic *lubo (cf. Old High German liubi "joy," German Liebe "love;" Old Norse, Old Frisian, Dutch lof; German Lob "praise;" Old Saxon liof, Old Frisian liaf, Dutch lief, Old High German liob, German lieb, Gothic liufs "dear, beloved").
The Germanic words are from PIE *leubh- "to care, desire, love" (cf. Latin lubet, later libet "pleases;" Sanskrit lubhyati "desires;" Old Church Slavonic l'ubu "dear, beloved;" Lithuanian liaupse "song of praise").
"Even now," she thought, "almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita but myself. Camilla alone remembers her Uncle Pio and her son; this woman, her mother. But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning." [Thornton Wilder, "Bridge of San Luis Rey," 1927]
Meaning "a beloved person" is from early 13c. The sense "no score" (in tennis, etc.) is 1742, from the notion of "playing for love," i.e. "for nothing" (1670s). Phrase for love or money "for anything" is attested from 1580s. Love seat is from 1904. Love-letter is attested from mid-13c.; love-song from early 14c. To fall in love is attested from early 15c. To be in love with (someone) is from c.1500. To make love is from 1570s in the sense "pay amorous attention to;" as a euphemism for "have sex," it is attested from c.1950. Love life "one's collective amorous activities" is from 1919, originally a term in psychological jargon. Love affair is from 1590s. The phrase no love lost (between two people) is ambiguous and was used 17c. in reference to two who love each other well (c.1640) as well as two who have no love for each other (1620s).
Idioms and Phrases with love
love
In addition to the idioms beginning with love
- love affair
- love at first sight
also see:
- all's fair in love and war
- course of true love
- fall in love
- for the love of
- labor of love
- make love
- misery loves company
- no love lost
- not for love or money
- puppy love
- somebody up there loves me