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love - What does it mean?

Definition of 'love'

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . The closing-of-a-letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

  • (label) Strong affection.
  • # An intense feeling of affection and care towards another person.
  • #*
  • |title=(The Celebrity)|chapter=8 |passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.}}
  • # A deep or abiding liking for something.
  • # A profound and caring attraction towards someone.
  • #* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • He on his side / Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love / Hung over her enamoured.
  • (countable) The object of one’s romantic feelings; a darling or sweetheart.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • Open the temple gates unto my love .
  • (colloquial)
  • (euphemistic) A sexual desire; sexual activity.
  • *1986, Ben Elton & al., ":
  • *:—What think you, my lord, of... love ?
  • *:—You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’.
  • (obsolete) A thin silk material.
  • * 1664 , (Robert Boyle), Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours,
  • Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love -Hood.
  • A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba .
  • Synonyms
    * (sense) baby, darling, lover, pet, sweetheart, honey, love bird * (term of address) mate, lover. darling, sweety
    Antonyms
    * (strong affection) hate, hatred, angst; malice, spite * (absence of love) indifference

    Verb

    (lov)
  • To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI
  • I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
  • * 2013 February 26, and (Nate Ruess), (Just Give Me a Reason) :
  • Just give me a reason, / just a little bit's enough, / just a second we're not broken, just bent / and we can learn to love again.
  • To need, thrive on.
  • (colloquial) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like .
  • To care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
  • * John 3:16
  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
  • * Matthew: 37-38
  • You shall love' the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole soul; you shall ' love your neighbor as yourself.
  • * {{quote-magazine|date=2013-06-21|author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • |volume=189|issue=2|page=27|magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) |title= The tao of tech |passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
  • To derive delight from a fact or situation.
  • To lust for.
  • (euphemistic) To have sex with, (perhaps from make love.)
  • Antonyms
    * hate, despise
    Derived terms
    * all's fair in love and war * cupboard love * in love * I love you * fall in love * first love * lady love * love affair * love at first sight * love bird/lovebird * love bite/lovebite * love bomb * love bug * lovebunny * love child * loved-up * love egg * love feast (rel-mid3) * love game * love grass * love handle * love-hate * love-in * love-in-a-mist * love is blind * love life * lovely * love-making * love match * love nest * love potion * lover * love rat * lovertine * love seat * loveship (rel-mid3) * love-shyness * lovesick * love song * lovestone * love story * love tap * love toy * love triangle * lovey-dovey * loving kindness * loyal love * make love * unrequited love * no love lost * puppy love * tough love * true love * unconditional love (rel-bottom)

    See also

    * charity

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . See also (l).

    Verb

    (lov)
  • To praise; commend.
  • To praise as of value; prize; set a price on.
  • Etymology 3

    From the phrase Neither for love nor for money , meaning "nothing". The previously held belief that it originated from the (etyl) term , due to its shape, is no longer widely accepted.

    Noun

    (-)
  • (racquet sports) Zero, no score.
  • So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.
  • * The Field
  • He won the match by three sets to love .
  • * John Betjeman, A Subaltern's Love Song
  • Love -thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, / The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, / With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, / I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.

    Statistics

    *

    Similar to 'love'

    leave, life, live, lave, levee, lobe, lope, loupe, lube, lifie, lyfe, loipe, lovee, lofe, loave