loving

See also: Loving

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English lovyng(e) (“love”), inherited from Old English lufung. By surface analysis, love +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

Noun

loving (usually uncountable, plural lovings)

  1. The action of the verb to love. (Can we clean up(+) this sense?)

Adjective

loving (comparative lovinger or more loving, superlative lovingest or most loving)

  2. Expressing a large amount of love to other people; affectionate.[2]
    Synonyms: adoring, affectionate; see also Thesaurus:affectionate
    his loving wife, her loving husband
  4. (attributive, slang, US) Euphemistic form of fucking.[3]
    • 1962, John Oliver Killens, “Part I [1]: The Planting Season — Chapter 2”, in And Then We Heard The Thunder (Books for Young Readers)‎[1], 1st edition, quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, New York City, NY: Alfred A[braham]. Knopf, Inc[orporated]., published 1964, →ISBN, →OL, page 13, lines 25–27:
      I want you to have every loving brother’s sister’s cousin’s child downstairs and standing at attention at six o’clock.
    • 1966, David Halberstam, one very hot day‎[2], quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, published 1967, page 51, lines 26–27:
      “Anderson,” said Beaupre, “you think we’re going to see any lovin’ Viet Congs today?”
    • 1977, John Langone, Life at the Bottom: The People of Antarctica‎[3], 1st edition, quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, Boston—Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, published 1977, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 76, lines 26–27:
      “ Eat and drink like a loving pig,” he says, patting the bulge under his parka.
    • 1995, John Sack, Company C: The Real War in Iraq‎[4], 1st edition, quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, New York City, NY: William Morrow & Company, published 1995, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, →Goodreads, page 151, line 18:
      At long lovin’ last!

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

loving

  1. present participle and gerund of love

Derived terms

terms derived from all parts of speech

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “loving”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
  2. ^ “loving” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025, retrieved 2025-08-06.
  3. ^ “loving adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present, retrieved 6 August 2025

Further reading

  • “loving”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

loving

  1. alternative form of lovynge (“praise”)
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.