Definition of "love"

love¹

/lʌv/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural loves
1. (uncountable) A deep caring for the existence of another.
2. (uncountable) Strong affection.
  1. A profound and caring affection towards someone.
    Quotations
    He on his side / Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love / Hung over her enamoured.
    1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost
    2014, S. Hidden, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Mystical Perspectives on the Love of God
  2. Affectionate, benevolent concern or care for other people or beings, and for their well-being.
    Quotations
    The love of your neighbor as yourself, is expressly given as the definition and test of Charity,—not alms-giving—and this love is [...] the highest of all the Divine commands[.]
    1864, Utilitarianism Explained and Exemplified in Moral and Political Government
    Through nonviolent resistance we shall be able to oppose the unjust system and at the same time love the perpetrators of the system. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for full stature as citizens, but may it never be said, my friends, that to gain it we used the inferior methods of falsehood, malice, hate, and violence.
    1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart”, in Strength to Love‎, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, page 7
  3. A feeling of intense attraction towards someone.
    Quotations
    Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.
    1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], Act III, page 39
    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.
    1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
  4. A deep or abiding liking for something; an enthusiasm for something.
    Quotations
    For three decades, the average number of miles driven by US motorists increased steadily. Then, in 2007, that steady climb was suddenly halted. [...] What magic caused Americans to temper their longstanding love of the open road?
    2012, Philip Auerswald, The Coming Prosperity
3. (countable) A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.
  Quotations
  Open the temple gates unto my love.
  1595, Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion
  O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
  'Oh, my love, my love!' she murmured, 'wilt thou ever know how I have loved thee?' and she kissed him on the forehead, and then went and stood in the pathway of the flame of Life.
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
  I met my love by the gasworks wall.
  1969, The Dubliners, Dirty Old Town
4. (colloquial, Commonwealth) A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.
5. A thing, activity, etc. which is the object of one's deep liking or enthusiasm.
  Quotations
  But it wasn't until [Theresa M. Claiborne] went to ROTC training camp at the University of California at Berkeley that she discovered that flying was her first love. "Pilots talk about getting bit by the flying bug," she says. "I thought, This is heaven."
  1997 March, “Faces of Today's Black Woman”, in Ebony, volume 52, number 5, page 96
6. (euphemistic) Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction.
  Quotations
  The prospect that their cherished Greeks would have countenanced, much less honored, a love between men that expressed itself carnally, however, was not so easily assimilated.
  2013, Ronald Long, Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods, Routledge, page 3
7. (euphemistic) Sexual activity.
  Quotations
  —What think you, my lord, of... love?—You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’.
  1986, Ben Elton et al., “Bells”, in Blackadder II
8. An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair.
  Quotations
  Maybe it was just a summer love, something with no future.
  2014, E. L. Todd, Then Came Absolution
9. Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young.
10. Alternative letter-case form of Love (“personification of love”).
  Quotations
  At busy hearts in vain love's arrows fly; [...]
  c. 1810, Samuel Johnson (in The Works of Samuel Johnson)
11. (obsolete) A thin silk material.
  Quotations
  Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love-Hood.
  1664, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, […]
12. A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba.
verb
third-person singular simple present loves, present participle loving, simple past and past participle loved
1. (usually transitive, sometimes intransitive, stative) To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
  Quotations
  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.
  1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,
  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.
  2013 February 26, Pink, Nate Ruess, Just Give Me a Reason
2. (transitive) To need, thrive on.
3. (transitive) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.
  Quotations
  "I love not that underlings should perceive my wisdom."
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
4. (usually transitive, sometimes intransitive) To seek the good or honor of (someone), care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
  Quotations
  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.
  John 3:16
  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.
  Matthew: 22:37-38
5. (transitive, sometimes ironic) To derive delight from a fact or situation.
6. (transitive, euphemistic) To have sex with (perhaps from make love).

love²

/lʌv/

noun
uncountable
1. (racquet sports, billiards) Zero, no score.
  Quotations
  The next day Agassi came back from two sets to love down to beat Courier in five sets.
  2013, Paul McNamee, Game Changer: My Tennis Life
2. Nothing; no recompense.
  Quotations
  I fought the white man for less than sixpence. I fought him for love, which is nothing at all.
  1916, H. Rider Haggard, The Ivory Child

love³

/lʌv/

verb
third-person singular simple present loves, present participle loving, simple past and past participle loved
1. Alternative form of lofe (“to praise, sell”)

Definition of "love"

love1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

love2

noun

Quotations

Quotations

love3

verb

love¹

love²

love³