fall in love

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fall in love (third-person singular simple present falls in love, present participle falling in love, simple past fell in love, past participle fallen in love)

1. (intransitive, of a person, animate object following “with”) To come to have feelings of love, particularly romantic love.

   I fell in love with him the moment I first saw him.

   Have you ever fallen in love?

   • 1975, Brian Potter, Dennis Lambert (lyrics and music), “It Only Takes a Minute”, in In the City, performed by Tavares:

     It only takes a minute girl / To fall in love

   • 2016 February 5, Wesley Schultz and Jeremy Fraites, “Ophelia”, in Cleopatra‎, performed by The Lumineers:

     Oh, Ophelia / You've been on my mind, girl, since the flood / Oh, Ophelia / Heaven help a fool who falls in love

   • 2019, Cavetown (lyrics and music), “Home”‎:

     Often, I am upset / That I cannot fall in love, but I guess / This avoids the stress of falling out of it

2. (intransitive, reciprocal) To come to have feelings of love towards each other.

   They met, fell in love, got married, and lived happily ever after.

   • 2017, Ed Sheeran (lyrics and music), “Perfect”:

     'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
     Not knowing what it was
     I will not give you up this time.

3. (intransitive, of a person, inanimate object following "with") To come to have feelings of intense liking directed at another person or a thing.

   I have just fallen in love with Rome!

• develop feelings
• enamour

• fall out of love
• disenamour

• falling in love, falling-in-love (noun)