Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Light-o'-love   /laɪt-oʊ-ləv/   Listen
noun
Light-o'-love  n.  
1.
An old tune of a dance, the name of which made it a proverbial expression of levity, especially in love matters. "Best sing it to the tune of light-o'-love."
2.
Hence: A light or wanton woman; a woman inconstant in love. Called also light-of-love.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Light-o'-love" Quotes from Famous Books



... you cannot escape the destiny of all queens. The day will come when you long to be treated as a light-o'-love, to be mastered and swept off your feet by a strong man, one who will not prostrate himself in adoration before you, but will seize your arm roughly in a fit of jealousy. Macumer loves you too fondly ever to ...
— Letters of Two Brides • Honore de Balzac
... my veteran light-o'-love! In deeming thee mere man, I wronged thy sire: some Satyr he, or ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus
... with a light-o'-love. One Whitsuntide he went a jaunt with two other young fellows, on horseback, to Matlock and thence to Bakewell. Matlock was at that time just becoming a famous beauty-spot, visited from Manchester and from the Staffordshire towns. In the hotel where the young men took lunch, were two girls, ...
— The Rainbow • D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
... there was a time when such hunger used to gnaw at my belly as you would never believe. It was then that my eyes became dazzled with the tokens of shame. So I took my fill of love, as does every woman. And once a woman has become a light-o'-love she may as well doff her shift altogether, and use the body which God has given her. And, after all, an independent life is the best life; so I hawk myself about like a pot of beer, and say, 'Drink of this, anyone who likes, ...
— Through Russia • Maxim Gorky
... Christie; "play surprise as well as you will, you must have some guess that I am speaking of the poor fool that was my wife, till she became your lordship's light-o'-love." ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com