English Dictionary

Definition of “love

love (lʌvPronunciation for love

Definitions

verb

  1. (tr) to have a great attachment to and affection for
  2. (tr) to have passionate desire, longing, and feelings for
  3. (tr) to like or desire (to do something) very much
  4. (tr) to make love to
  5. (intr) to be in love

noun

    1. an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing
    2. ((as modifier)  ⇒ love song love story 
  1. a deep feeling of sexual attraction and desire
  2. wholehearted liking for or pleasure in something
  3. Christianity 
    1. God's benevolent attitude towards man
    2. man's attitude of reverent devotion towards God
  4.  Also my lovea beloved person: used esp as an endearment
  5. British informal a term of address, esp but not necessarily for a person regarded as likable
  6. (in tennis, squash, etc) a score of zero
  7. See fall in love
  8. See for love
  9. See for love or money
  10. See for the love of
  11. See in love
  12. See make love
related adjective
amatory

Word Origin

Old English lufu;  related to Old High German luba;  compare also Latin libēre  (originally lubēre) to please

Synonyms

View thesaurus entry
= adore, care for, treasure, cherish, prize, worship, be devoted to be attached to be in love with dote on, hold dear think the world of, idolize, feel affection for have affection for adulate, LUV,
= enjoy, like, desire, fancy, appreciate, relish, delight in savour, take pleasure in have a soft spot for be partial to have a weakness for LUV,
= liking, taste, delight in bent for weakness for relish for enjoyment, devotion to penchant for inclination for zest for fondness for soft spot for partiality to LUV,
= beloved, dear, dearest, sweet, lover, angel, darling, honey, loved one sweetheart, truelove, dear one leman, inamorata or inamorato LUV,
= greetings, regards, compliments, best wishes, good wishes kind regards LUV,

Quotations

  • "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • "All that matters is love and work" attributed to Sigmund Freud
  • "Money was scarce but new love has no need of money. Somewhere to go, to be together is all and we were lucky. We had that. Hell is love with no place to go" Dilys Rose
  • "To be overtopped in anything else I can bear: but in the tests of generous love I defy all mankind" Robert Burns
  • "Love's pleasure lasts but a moment; love's sorrow lasts all through life" Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian
  • "What love is, if thou wouldst be taught,Thy heart must teach alone -Two souls with but a single thought,Two hearts that beat as one" Friedrich Halm
  • "Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it" Jerome K. Jerome
  • "Love's like the measles - all the worse when it comes late in life" Douglas Jerrold
  • "No, there's nothing half so sweet in lifeAs love's young dream" Thomas Moore
  • "And all for love, and nothing for reward" Edmund Spenser
  • "'Tis better to have loved and lostThan never to have loved at all" Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  • "Love means never having to say you're sorry" Erich Segal
  • "In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love" Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  • "Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it" Anthony Trollope
  • "Love conquers all things; let us too give in to love" Virgil
  • "Love and do what you will" Saint Augustine of Hippo
  • "Those have most power to hurt us that we love" Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
  • "My love's a noble madness" John Dryden
  • "And love's the noblest frailty of the mind" John Dryden
  • "Love's tongue is in the eyes" Phineas Fletcher
  • "Love is only one of many passions" Samuel Johnson
  • "Where both deliberate, the love is slight;Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?" Christopher Marlowe
  • "If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?" Lily Tomlin
  • "Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure" Lord Byron
  • "Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love" William Shakespeare
  • "The course of true love never did run smooth" William Shakespeare
  • "Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds" William Shakespeare
  • "Love is like linen - often changed, the sweeter" Phineas Fletcher
  • "O my love's like a red, red rose" Robert Burns
  • "Two things a man cannot hide: that he is drunk, and that he is in love" Antiphanes
  • "Every man is a poet when he is in love" Plato
  • "one that lov'd not wisely but too well" William Shakespeare
  • "To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god" Jorge Luis Borges
  • "Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away" Dorothy Parker
  • "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same direction" Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • "Love ceases to be a pleasure, when it ceases to be a secret" Aphra Behn
  • "Women who love the same man have a kind of bitter freemasonry" Max Beerbohm
  • "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it" Bible: Song of Solomon
  • "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" Bible: St. John
  • "O lyric Love, half-angel and half-birdAnd all a wonder and a wild desire" Robert Browning
  • "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart,'Tis woman's whole existence" Lord Byron
  • "Whoever loves, if he do not proposeThe right true end of love, he's one that goesTo sea for nothing but to make him sick" John Donne
  • "I am two fools, I know,For loving, and for saying soIn whining poetry" John Donne
  • "How alike are the groans of love to those of the dying" Malcolm Lowry
  • "Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another" H.L. Mencken
  • "After all, my erstwhile dear,My no longer cherished,Need we say it was not love,Now that love has perished?" Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • "If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: `Because it was he; because it was me.'" Montaigne
  • "Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies" John Donne
  • "Love thy neighbour as thyself" Bible: Leviticus
  • "All's fair in love and war"
  • "Love is blind"
  • "One cannot love and be wise"
  • "Love makes the world go round"
  • "Love will find a way"

Translations

  • British English: love Pronunciation for love Love is the very strong warm feeling that you have when you care very much about someone, or you have strong romantic feelings for them.In the four years since we married, our love has grown stronger.lʌv NOUN In the four years since we married, our love has grown stronger.
  • Spanish: amor Pronunciation for amor nm
  • French: amour Pronunciation for amour nm
  • German: Liebe Pronunciation for Liebe nf
  • Chinese: Pronunciation for 爱 n
  • Arabic: حُبٌPronunciation for حُبٌ n
  • Portuguese: amorPronunciation for amor nm
  • Russian: любовьPronunciation for любовь nf
  • Croatian: ljubavPronunciation for ljubav nf
  • Czech: láskaPronunciation for láska nf
  • Danish: kærlighedPronunciation for kærlighed nutr
  • Dutch: liefdePronunciation for liefde nf
  • Finnish: rakkausPronunciation for rakkaus n
  • Greek: αγάπηPronunciation for αγάπη nf
  • Italian: amorePronunciation for amore nm
  • Japanese: Pronunciation for 愛 n
  • Korean: 사랑Pronunciation for 사랑 n
  • Norwegian: kjærlighetPronunciation for kjærlighet nm
  • Polish: miłośćPronunciation for miłość nf
  • Brazilian Portuguese: amorPronunciation for amor nm
  • European Spanish: amor Pronunciation for amor nm
  • Swedish: kärlekPronunciation for kärlek nutr
  • Thai: ความรักPronunciation for ความรัก n
  • Turkish: sevgi/aşkPronunciation for sevgi/aşk n
  • Vietnamese: tình yêuPronunciation for tình yêu n

  • British English: love Pronunciation for love If you love someone, you care very much about them.lʌv VERB
  • Spanish: amar Pronunciation for amar v
  • French: aimer Pronunciation for aimer vt
  • German: lieben Pronunciation for lieben v
  • Chinese: Pronunciation for 爱 v
  • Arabic: يَوَدُّPronunciation for يَوَدُّ vt
  • Portuguese: amarPronunciation for amar v
  • Russian: любитьPronunciation for любить v
  • Croatian: voljetiPronunciation for voljeti v
  • Czech: milovatPronunciation for milovat v
  • Danish: elskePronunciation for elske v
  • Dutch: houden vanPronunciation for houden van v
  • Finnish: rakastaaPronunciation for rakastaa v
  • Greek: αγαπώPronunciation for αγαπώ v
  • Italian: amarePronunciation for amare v
  • Japanese: 愛するPronunciation for 愛する v
  • Korean: 사랑하다Pronunciation for 사랑하다 v
  • Norwegian: elskePronunciation for elske v
  • Polish: pokochaćPronunciation for pokochać v kochać
  • Brazilian Portuguese: amarPronunciation for amar v
  • European Spanish: amar Pronunciation for amar v
  • Swedish: älskaPronunciation for älska v
  • Thai: รักPronunciation for รัก v
  • Turkish: sevmekPronunciation for sevmek v
  • Vietnamese: yêuPronunciation for yêu v

  • British English: love If you love something, you like it very much.We both love football.lʌv VERB We both love football.
  • French: aimer beaucoup vt
  • Arabic: يُحِبُّ v
  • Brazilian Portuguese: adorar vt

Usage examples

  • Then disaster, in the form of romance, struck: he fell, really, truly, in love.
    Jon Cleary, YESTERDAY'S SHADOW (2002)
  • Italy, it must be remembered, is a long-term love affair for most foreigners.
    Country Life (2004)
  • I'd love to do more albums, maybe produce, um, you know - who knows?
    Irish Times (2002)
  • By the end of the war Princess Elizabeth was madly in love.
    Glasgow Herald (2001)
  • This is why sacred love has a place within the context of Aboriginal society.
    James Cowan, ABORIGINE DREAMING: Introduction to the Wisdom and Thought of the Aboriginal Traditions of Australia (2002)

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