love at first sight

An instantaneous attraction to someone or something. For example, With Peter and Constance, it was a case of love at first sight, or When Dave saw that car, it was love at first sight. This expression was already used by Chaucer for romantic attraction in Troilus and Cressida: “She loved right from the first sight.” The transfer to objects dates from the first half of the 1900s.

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a granular metamorphic rock.
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Words nearby love at first sight

lovat, love, love affair, love apple, love arrows, love at first sight, love beads, love child, love conquers all, love feast, love for love
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Example sentences from the Web for love at first sight

  • My attachment to the song became especially pronounced last Christmas, when I had my first love-at-first-sight experience.

    Ave Mariah|Jessi Klein|December 22, 2008|DAILY BEAST

  • She recollected her love-at-first-sight for the pretty bride, and well-nigh regarded the friendship as a romance of her girlhood.

    Heartsease|Charlotte M. Yonge

  • It was a sudden smite,—one of those flash-in-the-pan, love-at-first-sight affairs.

    Marion's Faith.|Charles King

  • Of these she selects, entirely on the love-at-first-sight principle, a very handsome young man who passes in the street.

    A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1|George Saintsbury