Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

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




Love match   /ləv mætʃ/   Listen
noun
Love  n.  
1.
A feeling of strong attachment induced by that which delights or commands admiration; preeminent kindness or devotion to another; affection; tenderness; as, the love of brothers and sisters. "Of all the dearest bonds we prove Thou countest sons' and mothers' love Most sacred, most Thine own."
2.
Especially, devoted attachment to, or tender or passionate affection for, one of the opposite sex. "He on his side Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love Hung over her enamored."
3.
Courtship; chiefly in the phrase to make love, i. e., to court, to woo, to solicit union in marriage. "Demetrius... Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul."
4.
Affection; kind feeling; friendship; strong liking or desire; fondness; good will; opposed to hate; often with of and an object. "Love, and health to all." "Smit with the love of sacred song." "The love of science faintly warmed his breast."
5.
Due gratitude and reverence to God. "Keep yourselves in the love of God."
6.
The object of affection; often employed in endearing address; as, he held his love in his arms; his greatest love was reading. "Trust me, love." "Open the temple gates unto my love."
7.
Cupid, the god of love; sometimes, Venus. "Such was his form as painters, when they show Their utmost art, on naked Lores bestow." "Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love."
8.
A thin silk stuff. (Obs.)
9.
(Bot.) A climbing species of Clematis (Clematis Vitalba).
10.
Nothing; no points scored on one side; used in counting score at tennis, etc. "He won the match by three sets to love."
11.
Sexual intercourse; a euphemism. Note: Love is often used in the formation of compounds, in most of which the meaning is very obvious; as, love-cracked, love-darting, love-killing, love-linked, love-taught, etc.
A labor of love, a labor undertaken on account of regard for some person, or through pleasure in the work itself, without expectation of reward.
Free love, the doctrine or practice of consorting with one of the opposite sex, at pleasure, without marriage. See Free love.
Free lover, one who avows or practices free love.
In love, in the act of loving; said esp. of the love of the sexes; as, to be in love; to fall in love.
Love apple (Bot.), the tomato.
Love bird (Zool.), any one of several species of small, short-tailed parrots, or parrakeets, of the genus Agapornis, and allied genera. They are mostly from Africa. Some species are often kept as cage birds, and are celebrated for the affection which they show for their mates.
Love broker, a person who for pay acts as agent between lovers, or as a go-between in a sexual intrigue.
Love charm, a charm for exciting love.
Love child. an illegitimate child.
Love day, a day formerly appointed for an amicable adjustment of differences. (Obs.)
Love drink, a love potion; a philter.
Love favor, something given to be worn in token of love.
Love feast, a religious festival, held quarterly by some religious denominations, as the Moravians and Methodists, in imitation of the agapae of the early Christians.
Love feat, the gallant act of a lover.
Love game, a game, as in tennis, in which the vanquished person or party does not score a point.
Love grass. (Bot.) Any grass of the genus Eragrostis.
Love-in-a-mist. (Bot.)
(a)
An herb of the Buttercup family (Nigella Damascena) having the flowers hidden in a maze of finely cut bracts.
(b)
The West Indian Passiflora foetida, which has similar bracts.
Love-in-idleness (Bot.), a kind of violet; the small pansy. "A little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound; And maidens call it love-in-idleness."
Love juice, juice of a plant supposed to produce love.
Love knot, a knot or bow, as of ribbon; so called from being used as a token of love, or as a pledge of mutual affection.
Love lass, a sweetheart.
Love letter, a letter of courtship.
Love-lies-bleeding (Bot.), a species of amaranth (Amarantus melancholicus).
Love match, a marriage brought about by love alone.
Love potion, a compounded draught intended to excite love, or venereal desire.
Love rites, sexual intercourse.
Love scene, an exhibition of love, as between lovers on the stage.
Love suit, courtship.
Of all loves, for the sake of all love; by all means. (Obs.) "Mrs. Arden desired him of all loves to come back again."
The god of love, or The Love god, Cupid.
To make love, to engage in sexual intercourse; a euphemism.
To make love to, to express affection for; to woo. "If you will marry, make your loves to me."
To play for love, to play a game, as at cards, without stakes. "A game at piquet for love."
Synonyms: Affection; friendship; kindness; tenderness; fondness; delight.





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




"Love match" Quotes from Famous Books



... deacon exclaimed, and his eyes began to roll again. "They say it's not a love match! Oh, not in the teletabloid! They wouldn't dare hint such a thing. But the men on the barge. They say there's a rumor that she ran away. And she looks like the girl I picked ...
— The Martian Cabal • Roman Frederick Starzl
... clearly see what these dreams betoken; but you will find my unravelling savouring much of sameness, for I must read them all nearly in the same way. You will have four husbands, and it misdoubts me when you are married to the first it will be no love match. Inasmuch as you thought you had a great coif on your head and thought it ill-fitting, that shows you will love him but little. And whereas you took it off your head and cast it into the water, that shows that you will leave him. For that, men say, is 'cast on to the sea,' ...
— Laxdaela Saga - Translated from the Icelandic • Anonymous
... new world, to redeem the fortunes that had been ruined in the old. The letter written almost immediately after George's marriage, contained a full description of his wife—such a description as a man could only write within three weeks of a love match—a description in which every feature was minutely catalogued, every grace of form or beauty of expression fondly dwelt upon, every charm of manner ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon
... her social importance were out of all keeping with Rydal's humble position in the Bank. She dressed herself extravagantly, and began to entertain on a scale that was ridiculous considering their poverty. Before their marriage, Rydal had told me that it was a love match, and that she was as poor as he, as all her own people could do for her was to make a small allowance sufficient ...
— The Pointing Man - A Burmese Mystery • Marjorie Douie
... Many of the women had expected Eve to marry Jim Thorpe. But then they were of the more mature section of the population, those whose own marriages had taught them worldly wisdom, and blotted out the early romance of their youths. It had been a love match, a match where youth runs riot, and the madness of it sweeps its victims along upon its hot tide. Now the tide was cooling, some said ...
— The One-Way Trail - A story of the cattle country • Ridgwell Cullum
... grilling young Kenneth and holding him up to Contumely and forbidding him the use of Cozy Corner, he started in to boost the Love Match. ...
— Ade's Fables • George Ade
... to drop her jealousy; and since Mr. Early and Dick were now wholly released from thrall, she considered Madeline a creature too inoffensive to be reckoned an enemy. She could even share the tolerant and amused pleasure with which the world surveys a love match. This pair was so evidently and rapturously content that they diffused their own atmosphere. Lena could not understand that variety of love, but its presence was patent ...
— Jewel Weed • Alice Ames Winter
... perfect satisfaction which he felt at having found a wife of such joyous disposition. Then Madeleine, whose chestnut tresses were tinged with gleaming gold, and who was slimmer than her sister, and of a more dreamy style of beauty, her character and disposition refined by her musical tastes, made a love match which was quite a romance. Herbette, the architect, who became her husband, was a handsome, elegant man, already celebrated; he owned near Monvel a park-like estate, where he came to rest at times from the fatigue of ...
— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola
... feverish to make a showy fortune by fair means or by foul, while his daughter looks with envious eye upon m'lady, follows her fashions and too often apes her morals. The real life is supplanted by the artificial, and people are judged, not by what they are, but by what they have. The "true-love match" becomes but a reminiscence—the blind god's bow is manipulated by brutish Mammon. Men and women make "marriages of convenience," consult their fortunes rather than their affections—seek first a lawful companion with a well-filled purse, and ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann
... was from Illinois. She from Boston. Had an education (Boston Female High School,—Geometry, Algebra, a little Latin and Greek). Mother and father died. Came to Illinois alone, to teach school. Saw HIM—yes—a love match." ("Two souls," etc., etc.) "Married and emigrated to Kansas. Thence across the Plains to California. Always on the outskirts of civilization. ...
— Legends and Tales • Bret Harte


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com