lover
/ˈlʌvə
/noun
1A partner in a sexual or romantic relationship outside marriage: I think she had a secret lover they had been lovers for years...
- The two of them quickly pair off and start swapping sexual secrets and tales of past lovers.
- It is not at all clear what motivated her in her relations with her lovers.
- She is my lover, my mistress, and she has betrayed me in the worst possible way.
Synonyms
boyfriend, girlfriend, man friend, woman friend, lady friend, lady-love, beau, loved one, beloved, love, darling, sweetheart;
mistress, paramour, other man, other woman;
partner, significant other;
Italian inamorata, inamorato
informal bit on the side, bit of fluff, toy boy, fancy man, fancy woman, sugar daddy, bird, fella
British informal boyf, girlf
archaic swain, concubine, doxy, leman, courtesan
rare cicisbeo
1.1A person who likes or enjoys a specified thing: he was a great lover of cats music lovers...
- He was a great lover of music, animals, and country life and enjoyed tennis and golf.
- From the start the festival has proved a popular draw with jazz lovers by offering good music, mostly for free.
- I think the easiest way to sum it up would be, I'm a lover of acoustic music, I always have been.
Synonyms
devotee, admirer, fan, enthusiast, aficionado, follower, supporter, fanatic, addict, hound
informal buff, freak, nut
Derivatives
loverless
- His affection is, however, gained by one of the dogs in the kennels: Katy, an abandoned bulldog with whom he senses an obscure empathy (related, no doubt, to his feeling of affinity with the widowed and loverless Teresa).
- True, the therapist who advised one loverless friend of mine to buy a new ‘feminine’ wardrobe and a makeup kit did find herself quickly minus one patient.
- ‘A Love Story’ is for the loveless, loverless, lovelorn and the love-struck.