I. love 1 S1 W1 /lʌv/ BrE AmE verb
[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ lovable ≠ UNLOVABLE , ↑ loveless , ↑ lovely , ↑ loving , ↑ unloved ; noun : ↑ love , ↑ lover , loveliness., ↑ lovey ; verb : ↑ love ; adverb : ↑ lovingly ]
1 . ROMANTIC ATTRACTION [transitive not in progressive] to have a strong feeling of ↑ affection for someone, combined with sexual attraction:
I love you, Tracy.
He was the only man she had ever loved.
2 . CARE ABOUT [transitive not in progressive] to care very much about someone, especially a member of your family or a close friend:
I love my grandad so much.
I’ve always loved children.
much-loved/well-loved
In 1941, her much-loved sister was killed in an accident.
Many people feel guilty after the death of a loved one.
3 . LIKE/ENJOY [transitive] to like something very much or enjoy doing something very much:
I love carrots.
Jeff loves his work.
I love the way she sings that song.
Amy had always loved New York.
love doing something
I love going out to restaurants.
love to do something
We all love to talk about ourselves.
I’d love to (do something) spoken (=used to say that you would really like to do something)
‘Would you like to come swimming with us?’ ‘I’d love to.’
I’d have loved to have stayed till the end.
I’d love to know just why they did that.
4 . LOYALTY [transitive not in progressive] to have a strong feeling of loyalty to your country, an institution etc:
Dad’s always loved the navy.
5 . I love it! spoken used when you are amused by something, especially by someone else’s mistake or bad luck:
‘And then her boyfriend walked in and saw her kissing Ray.’ ‘I love it!’
6 . sb’s going to love something spoken
a) used to say that someone will enjoy something:
Listen guys, you’re going to love this.
b) used to say that someone will not be pleased about something:
I’m going to love telling him we’ve changed our minds again.
⇨ ↑ lover
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THESAURUS
▪ love to like someone very much and care a lot about them – used about people in your family or someone who you are sexually attracted to:
I love my wife and children very much.
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Have you ever said ‘I love you’ and not really meant it?
▪ adore to love and admire someone very much:
When she was a child she adored her father.
▪ be in love (with somebody) to feel that you love someone and want to have a romantic relationship with them:
We were both young and very much in love.
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Karen was in love with a man who was much older than her.
▪ be infatuated with somebody to love someone a lot and keep thinking about them, in a way that seems silly because you do not know them very well:
He became infatuated with a woman he met at a conference.
▪ have a crush on somebody to love and be sexually attracted to someone you are not having a relationship with, usually someone older:
Jane had a crush on the German teacher.
▪ be crazy about somebody informal to love someone very much – used for emphasis:
She’s crazy about you.
▪ be devoted to somebody to love someone very much and give them a lot of attention:
He was devoted to his wife and his children.
▪ dote on somebody written to love someone very much, especially a much younger family member, and behave very kindly to them:
He dotes on his grandchildren.
II. love 2 S1 W1 BrE AmE noun
[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ lovable ≠ UNLOVABLE , ↑ loveless , ↑ lovely , ↑ loving , ↑ unloved ; noun : ↑ love , ↑ lover , loveliness., ↑ lovey ; verb : ↑ love ; adverb : ↑ lovingly ]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: lufu ]
1 . FOR FAMILY/FRIENDS [uncountable] a strong feeling of caring about someone, especially a member of your family or a close friend OPP hate , hatred :
What these kids need is love and support.
love for
a mother’s love for her child
2 . ROMANTIC [uncountable] a strong feeling of liking someone a lot combined with sexual attraction
love for
Their love for each other grew deeper every day.
Tara is madly in love with you.
3 . PERSON YOU LOVE [countable] someone that you feel a strong romantic and sexual attraction to:
He was her first love.
the love of your life (=the person that you feel or felt the most love for)
4 . PLEASURE/ENJOYMENT
a) [singular, uncountable] a strong feeling of pleasure and enjoyment that something gives you
love of/for
my love of nature
He had a great love of music.
I fell in love with Amsterdam the very first time I visited the city.
b) [countable] something that gives you a lot of pleasure and enjoyment:
Sailing was her great love.
5 . make love (to/with somebody)
a) to have sex with someone that you love
b) old use to say ↑ loving things to someone, to kiss them etc
6 . send/give your love (to somebody), send/give somebody your love to ask someone to give your ↑ loving greetings to someone else when they see them, write to them etc:
Aunt Mary sends her love.
7 . love (from somebody)/lots of love/all my love written used at the end of a letter to a friend, a member of your family, or someone you love:
See you soon. Lots of love, Clare.
8 . (my) love British English spoken informal
a) a word used when you are talking to someone you love SYN darling :
‘Hello, love,’ said her father.
b) a friendly way of talking to someone who you do not know, especially to a woman or child. Many women consider this to be impolite or offensive:
What’s your name, love?
9 . be a love and .../... there’s a love British English spoken used when you are asking someone, especially children and members of your family, to do something:
Give these to your sisters, there’s a love.
10 . there is no love lost between somebody and somebody if there is no love lost between two people, they dislike each other
11 . TENNIS [uncountable] an expression meaning ‘no points’, used in the game of tennis
12 . not for love or/nor money informal if you cannot get something or do something for love or money, it is impossible to obtain or to do:
I can’t get hold of that book for love nor money.
13 . love triangle a situation in which someone is having a sexual relationship with the partner of a close friend – used especially in newspapers
14 . for the love of God ( also for the love of Mike/Pete ) old-fashioned spoken used to show that you are extremely angry, disappointed etc
⇨ a labour of love at ↑ labour 1 (4)
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COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning 2)
■ verbs
▪ be in love
Are you in love with her?
▪ fall in love (=start being in love)
I fell in love with her the minute I saw her.
▪ find love (=meet someone to love)
I never thought I would find love.
▪ return sb’s love (=love someone who loves you)
Estella does not return Pip’s love.
■ phrases
▪ love at first sight (=when you love someone as soon as you meet them)
For Marion and Ron it was love at first sight.
▪ very much in love
They were obviously very much in love.
▪ madly/deeply in love (=very much in love)
I married Dan because I was madly in love.
▪ head over heels in love (=very much in love)
The two of them fell head over heels in love.
▪ love is blind (=used to say that people do not notice the faults of the person they love)
Love is blind, I guess. How else could he stand to be with her?
■ adjectives
▪ true love (=real love)
She felt that she had finally found true love.
▪ real love
You could see real love in their eyes.
▪ romantic love
Romantic love was not always the reason for marriage.
▪ sexual love
Venus was the Roman goddess of sexual love.
▪ unrequited love (=love for someone who does not love you)
She had a secret, unrequited love for Harrison.
▪ undying love (=love that does not stop)
She and I swore undying love.
▪ passionate love
He wrote about his passionate love for her.
■ love + NOUN
▪ a love song/story
a tragic love story
▪ a love letter
She found a love letter from another woman in his wallet.
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THESAURUS
▪ love noun [uncountable] a feeling of liking someone very much and caring a lot about them – used about people in your family, or someone you feel sexually attracted to:
All children need love, attention, and encouragement.
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We don’t need words to express our love for each other.
▪ affection noun [uncountable] a gentle feeling of love which makes you want to be kind to someone and show them that you love them – used especially about friends and members of your family:
My mother never showed us us any affection.
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Alison and I had been at school together, and I felt great affection for her.
▪ devotion noun [uncountable] very strong love for someone in which you want to give them a lot of attention and look after them – used especially about strong feelings of love for your wife, husband, children etc:
His recovery is largely due to the devotion of his wife and family
▪ passion noun [uncountable] a strong and exciting feeling of love for someone you are extremely sexually attracted to:
He loved her still, with just the same passion as he always had.
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There was no passion in their relationship.
▪ infatuation noun [uncountable and countable] a strong feeling of love for someone, in which you cannot stop thinking about them, and which seems silly because you do not know them very well:
She hoped that his ridiculous infatuation would soon wear off.
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His infatuation with Diane seemed to be growing.
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a childhood infatuation
▪ romance noun [uncountable] the feeling of loving someone and the nice things you do to show this – used about someone you are sexually attracted to:
The romance had gone out of their relationship.
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In the UK, one in ten people have found romance over the Internet.
▪ crush noun [countable] a very strong feeling of love and sexual attraction for someone such as a teacher or a famous person, especially when there is no chance of you having a relationship with that person because you are much younger than them :
She had a teenage crush on one of her teachers.
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I had a big crush on Tom Cruise when I was growing up.
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a schoolgirl crush