Word.ws English Dictionary

lovepat

lovepat noun: someone who travels to another country to be with a romantic partner, or to experience love.

Noun (1)

lovepat (plural lovepats)

  1. (informal) Someone who travels to another country to be with a romantic partner, or to experience love.
    • These vitally important Expats are the ‘Lovepats’, who, coming in the bedroom window and sliding between the sheets, have down through the years, given their bodies, their genes, and their chromosomes to us grateful Rock Onions.1992, Larry Burchall, The other side: looking behind the shield, →ISBN, →LCCN, pages 56–58
    • People either come as lovepats or as skilled migrants, for work.2014, Micheline van Riemsdijk, quoting Danuta, “Agents of Local Incorporation: Skilled Migrant Organizations in Oslo, Norway”, in Migrant Professionals in the City, Routledge, →ISBN, pages 89–109

Noun (2)

lovepat (plural lovepats)

  1. A pat (gentle touch, e.g. on the head) meant as a display of love or affection; often euphemistically or sarcastically referring to a more violent hitting.
    • And Rinda was suddenly aware of a blue bruise just beneath his left eye. He saw her studying it. "A lovepat from my Uncle Rolfe," he said bitterly.1984, Valerie Sherwood, Born to love, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 131
    • “Did you strike my boy?” he roared at Tippie.
      “I just gave him a little lovepat on the seat,” Tippie said, and I said “He didn’t do him any harm,” but Henry was in no mood to listen to reason.1988, Glen Haley, Sparks fly upward: growing up in the Rockies, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 122

Examples of lovepat in a sentence

  • We found three ‘lovepats’ who followed their hearts to the Dutch capital and have no intention of backpedalling any time soon.2016 January/February, Lauren Comiteau, “Boundless love: Ain't no mountain high enough”, in A-mag – Amsterdam Magazine, volume 4, number 1...
  • And the lovepat and squeezing I gave you certainly can't have hurt that much.1991, anonymous author, The metamorphosis of Lisette Joyaux;and, The story of Monique, with other stories, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 136:
  • When he flipped her over, to give her a lovepat or two, how suddenly the spank became a clout, became a wallop.2012, Martin Amis, Lionel Asbo, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 117:

Forms of lovepat

plurallovepats

Origin of lovepat

Blend of love + expat.

From love + pat.

Questions about lovepat

What does lovepat mean?
Lovepat means someone who travels to another country to be with a romantic partner, or to experience love.
How do you use lovepat in a sentence?
We found three ‘lovepats’ who followed their hearts to the Dutch capital and have no intention of backpedalling any time soon.
What part of speech is lovepat?
Lovepat is a noun.
What is the plural of lovepat?
The plural of lovepat is lovepats.

Words near lovepat in the dictionary

  1. lovenest
  2. lovenests
  3. loveniid
  4. loveniids
  5. Lovens
  6. lovepat
  7. lovepats
  8. lover
  9. lover boy
  10. lover boys
  11. lover man

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lovepat (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lovepat.wav.

Cite this entry: “lovepat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lovepat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.