love-lock

love-lock

See also: lovelock and Lovelock

English

Noun

love-lock (plural love-locks)

1. Alternative form of lovelock
   • 1818, Samuel Johnson, quoting William Prynne, Unloveliness of Love-Locks‎, quoted in A Dictionary of the English Language:

     These love-locks, or ear-locks, in which too many of our nation have of late begun to glory, whatever they may seem to be in the eyes and judgement of many humorous, singular, effeminate, ruffianly, vain-glorious or time-serving persons, who repute and deem them a very generous, necessary, beautiful, and comely ornament; […]

   • 1901, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 13, in The Hound of the Baskervilles‎:

     “Do you see anything there?” I looked at the broad plumed hat, the curling love-locks, the white lace collar, and the straight, severe face which was framed between them.

2. A padlock symbolizing two people's love for each other.

   Synonyms: love lock, love padlock

   • 2014, Joan DeJean, How Paris Became Paris, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 208:

     In the early 2000s, two of Paris' famous bridges were transformed into what are called “Love Bridges,” their railings completely covered with “love-locks,” padlocks on which couples from around the world carve their initials before attaching them and then throwing the keys into the Seine as a declaration of undying passion.

Further reading

• “love-lock”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• love lock on Wikipedia.Wikipedia