lights-o'-love
lights-o'-love is the plural of light-o'-love.
Meaning of light-o'-love
Noun
light-o'-love (plural lights-o'-love)
- An old dance tune, whose name made it a proverbial expression of levity, especially in love matters.
- Best sing it to the tune of light o' love.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Someone who is inconstant in love; a flirt.
- You light-o'-love, a word or two.1626 February 13 (licensing date; Gregorian calendar), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Noble Gentleman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey...
- A promiscuous woman; a prostitute; a mistress or female lover.
- Thus they fared, one after another, as the light-o'-love dame introduced them into her chamber, so that no one ventured to come near her.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth
Questions about lights-o'-love
- What is lights-o'-love the plural of?
- Lights-o'-love is the plural of light-o'-love.
Words near lights-o'-love in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lights-o'-love (page history and authors); light-o'-love (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “lights-o'-love.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lights-o%27-love. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
