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lovely love

lovely

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Beautiful especially in a pleasing or charming way. synonym: beautiful.
  • adjective Enjoyable; delightful.
  • adjective Archaic Inspiring love or affection.
  • adjective Obsolete Full of love; loving.
  • noun A beautiful person, especially a woman.
  • noun A lovely object.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Fitted to excite love or emotion; possessing or characterized by engaging qualities; lovable; attractive; charming: as, a lovely woman; a lovely view; a lovely dress.
  • Attractive to appetite or desire; enticing; inviting.
  • Loving; tender.
  • Synonyms Amiable, Lovely (see quotation from Archbishop Trench under amiable); Handsome, Pretty, etc. (see beautiful); pleasing, charming, fair.
  • So as to induce or excite love; very beautifully or pleasantly.
  • Lovingly; kindly.
  • Worthy to be praised.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb Obs. or R. In a manner to please, or to excite love.
  • adjective Having such an appearance as excites, or is fitted to excite, love; beautiful; charming; very pleasing in form, looks, tone, or manner.
  • adjective Lovable; amiable; having qualities of any kind which excite, or are fitted to excite, love or friendship.
  • adjective obsolete Loving; tender.
  • adjective Very pleasing; -- applied loosely to almost anything which is not grand or merely pretty

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Inspiring actual love
  • adjective Evoking love-like, happy emotions by aesthetic or similar endearing qualities.
  • adjective Very nice, wonderful in a general sense.
  • adjective obsolete Loving, filled with love
  • noun An attractive, lovely person, especially a (professional) beauty.
  • noun A lovely object
  • adjective Worthy to be praised.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lovable especially in a childlike or naive way
  • noun a very pretty girl who works as a photographer's model
  • adjective appealing to the emotions as well as the eye

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lovely, luvelich, lufli, from Old English luflīc ("amiable, loving, lovable"), equivalent to love +‎ -ly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lovely, loflik, from Old English loflīc ("fit to be praised, laudable"), equivalent to lofe +‎ -ly. Cognate with Dutch loffelijk ("laudable, praiseworthy"), German löblich ("commendable, laudable, praiseworthy"), Swedish lovlig ("permissible"). More at lofe, love.

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Examples

  • To hear that lovely voice, for I do her justice, and there are lovely notes in her voice, _lovely_, to hear that voice shrieking and screaming away, in what she called the great scene, was simply pitiful.

    Queen Lucia 1903

  • "How lovely -- how _lovely_ you are!" he exclaimed, almost under his breath.

    Robin Frances Hodgson Burnett 1886

  • "Ah! mammy," she exclaimed more than once, "what a lovely, _lovely_ home! how happy we might be here!"

    Holidays at Roselands Martha Finley 1868

  • Betty finally hit the jackpot with a lovely (or should I say $lovely$) man and she fucking blew it away!

    Bryanboy.com 2009

  • Betty finally hit the jackpot with a lovely (or should I say $lovely$) man and she fucking blew it away!

    Bryanboy.com 2009

  • "Oh, what a lovely, _lovely_ house!" cried Sprite, "and what a dear place to live in.

    Princess Polly's Gay Winter Amy Brooks

  • And your mouth -- so sweet and sad -- but, what a lovely, _lovely_ smile! "

    Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, Volume I 1915

  • And your mouth -- so sweet and sad -- but, what a lovely, _lovely_ smile! "

    Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise David Graham Phillips 1889

  • We're always tempted to use the phrase "lovely in lavender," and Mila Kunis might have been just that at Sunday night's Oscars.

    Mila Kunis At The 2011 Oscars: Hit Or Miss? (PHOTOS, POLL) 2011

  • They used the word lovely to describe everything from fried rice to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

Comments

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  • frindley commented on the word lovely

    "Love-ly,

    All I am is lovely.

    Lovely is the one thing I can do.

    Winsome,

    What I am is winsome,

    Radiant as in some

    Dream come true.

    Oh, isn't it a shame?

    I can neither sew

    Nor cook

    Nor read or write my name.

    But I'm happy

    Merely being lovely,

    For it's one thing I can give to you."

    lyric from Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

    April 19, 2008

  • mayline974 commented on the word lovely

    i like it^^

    August 6, 2009

  • Ed_Jogg commented on the word lovely

    Nailed it! frindley:)

    February 10, 2011