love

[[t]lʌ̱v[/t]]

♦

loves, loving, loved

1) VERB If you love someone, you feel romantically or sexually attracted to them, and they are very important to you.

[V n] Oh, Amy, I love you...

[V n] We love each other. We want to spend our lives together.

2) N-UNCOUNT Love is a very strong feeling of affection towards someone who you are romantically or sexually attracted to.

Our love for each other has been increased by what we've been through together.

...a old fashioned love story.

...an album of love songs.

3) VERB You say that you love someone when their happiness is very important to you, so that you behave in a kind and caring way towards them.

[V n] You'll never love anyone the way you love your baby.

4) N-UNCOUNT Love is the feeling that a person's happiness is very important to you, and the way you show this feeling in your behaviour towards them.

My love for all my children is unconditional...

She's got a great capacity for love.

5) VERB If you love something, you like it very much.

[V n/-ing] We loved the food so much, especially the fish dishes...

[V n/-ing] I loved reading.

[V to-inf] ...one of these people that loves to be in the outdoors...

[V it wh] I love it when I hear you laugh.

6) VERB You can say that you love something when you consider that it is important and want to protect or support it.

[V n] I love my country as you love yours.

7) N-UNCOUNT: oft N of n Love is a strong liking for something, or a belief that it is important.

This is no way to encourage a love of literature...

The French are known for their love of their language.

Syn:

passion

8) N-COUNT: usu with poss Your love is someone or something that you love.

`She is the love of my life,' he said...

Music's one of my great loves.

9) VERB If you would love to have or do something, you very much want to have it or do it.

[V to-inf] I would love to play for England again...

[V n] I would love a hot bath and clean clothes...

[V n to-inf] His wife would love him to give up his job.

10) N-VOC (feelings) Some people use love as an affectionate way of addressing someone. [BRIT, INFORMAL]

Well, I'll take your word for it then, love...

Don't cry, my love.

Syn:

dear

11) NUM In tennis, love is a score of zero.

He beat Thomas Muster of Austria three sets to love.

12) CONVENTION You can use expressions such as `love', `love from', and `all my love', followed by your name, as an informal way of ending a letter to a friend or relation.

...with love from Grandma and Grandpa.

13) N-UNCOUNT: poss N If you send someone your love, you ask another person, who will soon be speaking or writing to them, to tell them that you are thinking about them with affection.

Please give her my love.

14) → See also , loving, , peace-loving, tug-of-love

15) PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR with n If you fall in love with someone, you start to be in love with them.

I fell in love with him because of his kind nature...

We fell madly in love.

16) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR with n If you fall in love with something, you start to like it very much.

Working with Ford closely, I fell in love with the cinema.

17) PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR with n If you are in love with someone, you feel romantically or sexually attracted to them, and they are very important to you.

Laura had never before been in love...

I've never really been in love with anyone...

We were madly in love for about two years.

18) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR with n If you are in love with something, you like it very much.

He had always been in love with the enchanted landscape of the West.

19) PHRASE: usu v-link PHR between pl-n If you say that there is no love lost between two people or groups or there is little love lost between them, you mean that they do not like each other at all.

There was no love lost between the two men who were supposed to be working in harmony on a mounting crisis.

20) PHR-RECIP: V inflects, oft pl-n PHR, PHR to/with n When two people make love, they have sex.

Have you ever made love to a girl before?...

One night, after 18 months of friendship, they made love for the first and last time.

21) PHRASE: with brd-neg, PHR after v If you cannot or will not do something for love or money, you are completely unable to do it or you do not intend to do it.

Replacement parts couldn't be found for love or money...

I'm not coming back up here. Never, for love nor money.

22) PHRASE: usu it be PHR Love at first sight is the experience of starting to be in love with someone as soon as you see them for the first time.

It was love at first sight, and he proposed to me six weeks later.

23) labour of love → see labour