Dictionary

first love en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (literally) One's first experience of the feeling of romantic love.
   • Could this be love?—pure, first love for a shopkeeper's daughter. 1852, Wilkie Collins, chapter 7, in Basil:
   • The common things are terrible and startling, death, for instance, and first love. 1906, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, chapter 10, in Charles Dickens:
2. (broadly) The first person to be the object of one's romantic affection.
   • [A]fter I made the personal acquaintance of Mr. Thrall's chef, Anatole, I found my affections dividing themselves between him and his lordship's man Robert, my first love. 1907, William Dean Howells, chapter 13, in Through the Eye of the Needle: A Romance:
   • He thought how he would tell her . . . that his love for her had fallen off through his own unworthiness, and had returned to one who was in all respects less perfect than she, but who in old days, as she well knew, had been his first love. c. 1867, Anthony Trollope, chapter 29, in The Claverings:
3. (broadly, idiomatic) The thing, place, or activity of which one is fondest; one's most fundamental interest or attachment.
   • He had a very strong and faithful attachment for places: Chatham, I think, being his first love in this respect. 1897, Mamie Dickens, chapter 1, in Charles Dickens—My Father as I Recall Him:
   • Even though he made his millions from refrigerators, radios, scalp exercisers, bed coolers and sundry other gadgets, Powel Crosley Jr.'s first love was always the automobile. 1952 July 28, “Mergers: Love's Labor Lost”, in Time:

Forms

Translations (32)

fa اولین عشق (one's first feeling of romantic love) · te తొలిప్రేమ (one's first feeling of romantic love) · pl pierwsza miłość (one's first feeling of romantic love) · ja 初恋 (one's first feeling of romantic love) · de erste Liebe (one's first feeling of romantic love) · fr premier amour (one's most fundamental interest or attachment) · tl unang pag-ibig (one's first feeling of romantic love) · my အချစ်ဦး (one's first feeling of romantic love) · vi tình yêu đầu tiên (one's first feeling of romantic love) · ru пе́рвая любо́вь (one's most fundamental interest or attachment) · cmn 初戀 /初恋 (one's first feeling of romantic love) · fr premier amour (one's first feeling of romantic love) · es primer amor (one's first feeling of romantic love) · sh прва љубав (one's first feeling of romantic love) · pt primeiro amor (one's first feeling of romantic love) · sh prva ljubav (one's first feeling of romantic love) · ar اَلْحُبّ اَلْأَوَّل (one's first feeling of romantic love) · id cinta pertama (one's first feeling of romantic love) · fi ensirakkaus (one's first feeling of romantic love) · fi suuri rakkaus (one's most fundamental interest or attachment) · fr premier amour (object of one's first romantic affection) · cmn 初戀情人 /初恋情人 (object of one's first romantic affection) · de große Liebe (one's most fundamental interest or attachment) · de erste Liebe (object of one's first romantic affection) · ko 첫사랑 (one's first feeling of romantic love) · ru пе́рвая любо́вь (one's first feeling of romantic love) · fi ensirakkaus (object of one's first romantic affection) · de erste Liebe (one's most fundamental interest or attachment) · tr ilk aşk (one's first feeling of romantic love) · ja 最初の愛 (one's first feeling of romantic love) · hi पहला प्यार (one's first feeling of romantic love) · ru пе́рвая любо́вь (object of one's first romantic affection)