make love
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: makes love
form: making love
form: made love
form: made love
Etymology: Calque of Old Occitan far amor, Middle French faire l'amour.
Senses: examples: text: So from thenceforth, when loue he to her made, / VVith better tearmes ſhe did him entertaine, / VVhich gaue him hope, and did him halfe perſvvade, / That he iunb time her ioyaunce ſhould obtaine.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 494:
text: [S]carcely had they passed the sweep-gate and joined the other carriage, than she found her subject cut up–her hand seized–her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her: availing himself of the precious opportunity, declaring sentiments which must already be well known, […]
ref: 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 275:
text: About a week afterwards she said to him, point-blank, “Are you seriously making love to your little cousin?”
ref: 1878, Henry James, chapter VIII, in The Europeans, Macmillan and Co.:
text: After all, the chief charm is in the fact of being made love to. You are making love to me, aren't you?
ref: 1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Baker’s Dozen”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 107:
text: The first stage we tackled was just about as rickety as it could very well be and I had to sit with the driver, who was a Mormon and so handsome that I was not a bit offended when he insisted on making love all the way, especially after he told me that he was a widower Mormon.
ref: 1914, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Houghton Mifflin Company, pages 3–4:
text: ‘Ever since I was sixteen men have been making love to me.’
ref: 1941, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa, Vintage, published 2004, page 24:
text: He's making violent love to me, Mother.
ref: 1946, It's a Wonderful Life, spoken by Mary Hatch (Donna Reed):
text: ... she began making a tour of the whole castle and asking questions, but all in such an innocent, babyish way that no one could suspect her of any secret design. (...) She made love to everyone - the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, the ladies-in-waiting ...
ref: 1953, C.S.Lewis, The Silver Chair, page 107:
synonyms: word: address
word: beau
word: bedear
word: chase after
word: court
word: endear
word: make a move (on)
word: make love
word: pitch woo
word: put the moves on
word: romance
word: solicit
word: spark
word: woo
glosses: To make amorous approaches (to); to woo, romance, court.
examples: text: I caught them making love on my couch.
text: She takes just like a woman, yeah she does / She makes love just like a woman, yeah she does
ref: 1966, Bob Dylan, “Just Like a Woman”, in Blonde on Blonde:
text: I feel like makin' love to you / That's the time / I feel like makin' dreams come true
ref: 1974, “Feel Like Makin’ Love”, performed by Roberta Flack:
text: There's many times that we've loved / We've shared love and made love / It doesn't seem to me like it's enough
ref: 1974, “Can't Get Enough of Your Love”, performed by Barry White:
text: You danced for me in your bare feet / That mellow afternoon / When we made love to each other
ref: 1976, “Oh Lori”, in Alessi, performed by Alessi Brothers:
text: Wake up and make love with me, wake up and make love / Wake up and make love with me / I don't want to make you, I'll let the fancy take you / And you'll wake up and make love
ref: 1977, “Wake Up And Make Love With Me”, in New Boots and Panties!!, performed by Ian Dury:
text: Actress Dana Delany fantasizes about making love with two men.
ref: 1995 March 22, “Seinfeld with Madonna? 'Cosmo' reveals sex fantasies”, in The Arizona Republic:
text: We made love and then you cried
ref: 2003 October 27, Alan Jackson, “Remember When”, in Greatest Hits Volume II (Promo-only CD single), performed by Alan Jackson:
synonyms: word: approach
word: cohabit
word: company
word: copulate
word: couple
word: engage in sex
word: exchange flesh
word: have intimate relations
word: have marital relations
word: have sex
word: have sexual relations
word: intercourse
word: know
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: make love
word: mate
word: share a bed
word: sleep together
word: strain
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beat
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: bop
word: bounce
word: breed
word: bump nasties
word: bump uglies
word: catch a dick
word: dance
word: discuss Uganda
word: dip one's pen in someone's inkwell
word: do it
word: do the deed
word: do the nasty
word: eff
word: engender
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get busy
word: get down
word: get freaky
word: get it
word: get it on
word: get jiggy
word: get laid
word: get lucky
word: get one's dick wet
word: get one's end away
word: get one's freak on
word: get one's groove on
word: get one's leg over
word: get one's oats
word: get physical
word: get some
word: get the dirty water off one's chest
word: graft the forked tree
word: go all the way
word: haul one's ashes
word: have it away
word: have it off
word: hide the salami
word: hide the sausage
word: hide the wienie
word: hike the Appalachian Trail
word: hook up
word: hump
word: jig-jig
word: knock boots
word: lay pipe
word: lay the pipe
word: make it
word: make out
word: make the beast with two backs
word: make whoopee
word: meddle
word: ming
word: Netflix and chill
word: penetrate
word: pipe
word: pipe down
word: play
word: play hide the sausage
word: pound
word: rail
word: ride
word: rock and roll
word: roger
word: roll around
word: root
word: screw
word: see someone's etchings
word: sex
word: shag
word: shelve
word: show someone one's etchings
word: slap bellies
word: stick
word: tumble
glosses: To engage in sexual intercourse.
Derived terms: make love, not war
make love to the camera