love letter

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word love letter. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word love letter, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say love letter in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word love letter you have here. The definition of the word love letter will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oflove letter, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From Middle English lovelettre.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

love letter (plural love letters)

  1. A letter written about the author's love for the intended reader.
    Synonym: billet-doux
    We never see each other, but have been sending love letters every Valentine's Day for 10 years.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] ; his clerks, however, understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there. For his signature, however, that was different.
    • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
      Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
  2. (figurative) A work that shows great passion or enthusiasm for something.
    This movie is a love letter to New York.
    • 2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC‎:
      The film is both a tip of the chapeau to The New Yorker, among other American magazines, and a love letter to expat life in France. But beyond that? There isn't much going on beneath its extraordinary bejewelled surface.
    • 2021 December 29, Conrad Landin, “Glasgow Subway: a city institution”, in RAIL, number 947, page 45:
      It was in this era, too, that author and Scotland the Brave songwriter Cliff Hanley penned The Glasgow Underground, a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the Subway in song.
  3. (US, slang) A notice from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection informing about the seizure of a personal shipment as contraband.
    • 2016 August 2, Nick Jarvis, “What Happens if You're Caught Getting Drugs in the Mail?”, in Vice‎:
      Dr Martin says the address the package has been sent to will likely get a "love letter" in the post from Customs.

Translations

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia