lover
[luhv-er]
- a person who is in love with another.
- a person who has a sexual or romantic relationship with another.
- a person with whom one conducts an extramarital sexual affair.
- a person who has a strong enjoyment or liking for something, as specified: a lover of music.
- a person who loves, especially a person who has or shows a warm and general affectionate regard for others: a lover of mankind.
Show More
Origin of lover
Synonyms
See more synonyms for lover on Thesaurus.com4. devotee, enthusiast, fan.
Lover
[luhv-er]
- Samuel,1797–1868, Irish novelist, painter, and songwriter.
Show More
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lover
Contemporary Examples
But there are a lot of women who go to these places and once they go to the inside, they find a lover.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’Michael Howard
January 6, 2015
This is a love quite distinct from that of a lover, with whom we fall in love, in part, because they are free and have a choice.
The long-nosed, self-described “little New York lover of photography” has embraced the impact his pictures can make.
Beacci, who had inherited nothing from her lover, had assumed his son would make provisions for her in his will.
How about the man who created her—a lover of women who lived with a wife, his lover, their children, and a wayward librarian?
Wonder Woman’s Creation Story Is Wilder Than You Could Ever ImagineTom Arnold-Forster
November 3, 2014
Historical Examples
Her lover played upon his flute, while she leaned against a tree and listened.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
He was older than I, experienced with women—a lover of women, I came to understand in time.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
If it be possible for so universal a lover to be confined so long to one object?
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
Calvert, my friend, is a lover as well as a painter of nature.
Ballads of a BohemianRobert W. Service
The lover wrestled with Providence for his foreshadowed bliss.
The Hall of Fantasy (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")Nathaniel Hawthorne
lover
- a person, now esp a man, who has an extramarital or premarital sexual relationship with another person
- (often plural) either of the two people involved in a love affair
- someone who loves a specified person or thinga lover of music
- (in combination)a music-lover; a cat-lover
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for lover
n.
early 13c., agent noun from love (v.). Old English had lufend for male lovers, lufestre for women. Meaning "one who has a predilection for" (a thing, concept, pursuit, etc.) is mid-14c. As a form of address to a lover, from 1911. Related: Loverly.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper