Definitions

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

  • noun A love potion.
  • noun A magic potion or charm.
  • transitive verb To enchant with or as if with a philter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A potion supposed to have the power of exciting sexual love; a love-potion.
  • To impregnate with a love-potion: as, to philter a draught.
  • To excite to sexual love or desire by a potion.

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

  • transitive verb To impregnate or mix with a love potion.
  • transitive verb To charm to love; to excite to love or sexual desire by a potion.
  • noun A potion or charm intended to excite the passion of love.

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

  • verb To impregnate or mix with a love potion.
  • verb To charm to love; to excite to love or sexual desire by a potion.

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

  • noun a drink credited with magical power; can make the one who takes it love the one who gave it

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French philtre, from Old French, from Latin philtrum, from Greek philtron, from philein, to love, from philos, beloved, loving.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek φίλτρον (philtron), from φιλέω (phileō, "I love").

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Examples

  • Past sand-colored mosques and beneath the mullioned windows I comb the streets looking for any evidence of a crocodile, but come up with nothing, save a popular extract of crocodile, a philter ointment whose label says, "For you and your happiness."

    Richard Bangs: Quest for the Lord of the Nile, Part II Richard Bangs 2011

  • Past sand-colored mosques and beneath the mullioned windows I comb the streets looking for any evidence of a crocodile, but come up with nothing, save a popular extract of crocodile, a philter ointment whose label says, "For you and your happiness."

    Richard Bangs: Quest for the Lord of the Nile, Part II Richard Bangs 2011

  • And, perchance still failing, then might I expect the common bravo's steel in my back or the common poisoner's philter in my wine, my meat, or bread.

    Chapter 11 2010

  • He half walked, half carried the asura back up the hill, where he dug through his pack filled with waxed-paper wrappings, finally producing a reddish philter.

    Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Matt Forbeck 2010

  • He half walked, half carried the asura back up the hill, where he dug through his pack filled with waxed-paper wrappings, finally producing a reddish philter.

    Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Matt Forbeck 2010

  • He half walked, half carried the asura back up the hill, where he dug through his pack filled with waxed-paper wrappings, finally producing a reddish philter.

    Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Matt Forbeck 2010

  • He half walked, half carried the asura back up the hill, where he dug through his pack filled with waxed-paper wrappings, finally producing a reddish philter.

    Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Matt Forbeck 2010

  • Charles the Great enforced to love basely by a philter

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Plutarch records of Lucullus that he died of a philter; and that Cleopatra used philters to inveigle Antony, amongst other allurements.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Aphonsi, hath a story of one Stephan, a Neapolitan knight, that by a philter was forced to run mad for love.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Comments

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  • also philtre

    July 24, 2008

  • Also see philtrum.

    April 27, 2015