Word.ws English Dictionary

turtle doves

turtle doves is the plural of turtle dove.

Meaning of turtle dove

Noun

turtle dove (plural turtle doves)

  1. Any of several (species of) birds, called by this traditional name, mainly in the genus Streptopelia, of the family Columbidae (doves and pigeons, which also included the extinct passenger pigeon, dodo, and solitaire).
  2. A lover, one half of a couple.
    • […] and then on a common impulse this curiously simple pair of habitual criminals were in each other's arms and exchanging fond kisses for all the world like honest lovers.
      "Hullo, turtle doves," remarked Nickle, stumbling in upon this idyll and accepting it with saving coolness.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London

Questions about turtle doves

What is turtle doves the plural of?
Turtle doves is the plural of turtle dove.

Words near turtle doves in the dictionary

  1. turtle crawl
  2. turtle crawls
  3. turtle curb
  4. turtle curbs
  5. turtle dove
  6. turtle doves
  7. turtle down
  8. turtle excluder device
  9. turtle excluder devices
  10. turtle frog
  11. turtle frolic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turtle doves (page history and authors); turtle dove (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:

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