love affair

American  

noun

1. a romantic relationship or episode between lovers; an amour.

2. an active enthusiasm for something.

   my love affair with sailing.

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love affair British  

noun

1. a romantic or sexual relationship, esp a temporary one, between two people

2. a great enthusiasm or liking for something

   a love affair with ballet

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love affair Idioms  

1. An intimate sexual relationship, as in They had a torrid love affair many years ago . This expression dates from about 1600, when it referred merely to the experiences connected with being in love. The current sense dates from the second half of the 1800s.

2. A strong enthusiasm, as in We can't ignore America's love affair with the automobile . [Mid-1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of love affair

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

Inara George looks back on it now as wistfully as someone remembering a love affair or a semester abroad.

From Los Angeles Times

The feisty heroine is Iris Hawkins, who, in the course of a tentative love affair with a nerdy engineer named Geoffrey Hale, discovers the pernicious designs of a secret order.

From The Wall Street Journal

She brought the socially connected Mrs. Walter into her confidence about the love affair with Elisha.

From Literature

After a three-year love affair with anything related to artificial intelligence, U.S. investors are flocking to the factory owners, fast-food restaurants and commodity companies that have seemingly strong odds of surviving the technological revolution intact.

From The Wall Street Journal

Not that Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff’s doomed-by-their-own-hands love affair ever needed the exposure; Brontë’s themes of obsession, revenge, social class and the supernatural are still analyzed in high school English classes.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• adultery
• affair
• courtship
• dalliance
• devotion
• fling
• flirtation
• infidelity
• involvement
• liaison
• love
• passion
• relationship
• tryst