Love Idioms: 25 English Idioms About Romance
Hello everyone,
If you’ve ever been confused by the way people talk about love, you’re not alone.
Love idioms can be tricky to understand because they don’t always mean what they say.
English speakers use these expressions all the time, but they can be hard to figure out if you’re still learning the language.
Today, we’re going to look at 25 common love idioms to help you make sense of these colorful sayings.
Let’s get started!
1. Love is blind
This means that when you’re in love with someone, you overlook or don’t notice their faults and imperfections. You only see the good things about them.
2. Puppy love
This refers to a childhood crush or very temporary/shallow romantic feelings, especially between young kids or teenagers whose feelings are not mature yet.
3. To wear your heart on your sleeve
If someone “wears their heart on their sleeve,” it means they openly display their feelings and make them obvious for others to see, rather than hiding their emotions.
4. To fall head over heels
This means to fall completely, deeply in love with someone very suddenly and intensely.
It paints the picture of someone tumbling over themselves because they are so consumed with feelings of love.
5. To have a crush on someone
Having a crush signifies having feelings of romantic admiration or infatuation for someone, usually in a bubbly, innocent way. It’s not necessarily true love yet.
6. Love is a battlefield
This suggests that the pursuit of romance is like a battle or conflict that needs to be won through struggle. Love isn’t easy!
7. Love at first sight
When you feel a sense of instant romantic connection the very first time you lay eyes on someone, that’s love at first sight according to this saying.
8. Star-crossed lovers
Two people who are profoundly romantically attached to each other but have some incredibly bad luck or external forces that keep driving them apart are called star-crossed lovers.
It implies their love is doomed from the start.
9. My better half
Someone’s “better half” is their romantic partner who they see as making them a better, more complete person. It suggests two people perfectly complement one another.
10. Win someone’s heart
If you manage to “win someone’s heart,” it means you succeeded in getting them to fall in love with you and return your romantic feelings for them.
11. Young love
This idiom refers to the innocence and intense passion of a romantic relationship between two young people, before they’ve experienced much in life yet.
12. Love makes the world go round
People say this to emphasize how important and powerful a force love is—it’s what keeps everything happening and motivates us all.
13. A love triangle
When three people are romantically involved and interested in each other, with complicated romantic feelings between all of them, that’s a love triangle.
14. Lovesick
Being “lovesick” is when you have an intense longing or pining for your romantic love interest to the point where it negatively affects you and makes you feel sick or unwell.
15. You are the apple of my eye
This is a profound way of stating that the person you love is the most treasured, adored person in your life and incredibly precious to you.
16. Love is a roller coaster
Like the metaphor suggests, true romantic love involves some very intense highs and lows of emotion, taking you on an unpredictable ride full of ups and downs.
17. To sweep someone off their feet
If you sweep someone off their feet, you utterly amaze, dazzle, and woo them in a romantic way that renders them enchanted and gives them an incredible infatuation for you.
18. To break someone’s heart
Causing someone deep, emotional anguish by being romantically unfaithful or ending a relationship is breaking their heart, per this metaphor.
19. There are plenty of fish in the sea
People say this to encourage someone who has just experienced heartbreak in a relationship, meaning there are still many other potential romantic partners out there for you.
20. Love is blind but the neighbors ain’t
This cautions that although you may be blind to your lover’s faults, other people around you can likely still see them clearly.
21. Love me, love my dog
The phrase suggests that you have to accept everything that is part of your loved one’s life, both good and bad. Love them unconditionally or not at all.
22. Opposites attract
This idiom means that people with very contrasting personalities or backgrounds are often romantically drawn to each other, despite or even because of their differences.
23. Love is a many-splendored thing
This elaborates how love is something wonderfully complex and marvelous, with many different beautiful facets and layers to it.
24. You are my sunshine
By calling their loved one “my sunshine,” a person means that their partner brightens their life and makes them incredibly happy and warm inside.
25. Don’t go breaking my heart
The phrase expresses one partner pleading with the other not to abandon them or devastate them emotionally by leaving the relationship or doing something unfaithful.
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That’s it for 25 popular English sayings about love and relationships, explained!
So next time you hear one, you’ll understand what it really means.
Love can be confusing, but at least now the sayings won’t be!
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