lovers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of lover.

   The young lovers wrote to each other every week while he was overseas.

   The festival draws jazz lovers from all over the country.

   Note

   The plural carries every meaning of lover: couples in love, partners in an affair, and enthusiasts, often named after another noun, as in music lovers or book lovers. The possessive puts its apostrophe after the s, so a fight between a couple is a lovers' quarrel. In the phrase be lovers with, the same form stops counting people and describes a bond.

2. 2
   adjective

   In a romantic or sexual relationship with another person.

   Before she met her wife, she had been lovers with a painter in Chicago.

   My aunt was lovers with a woman from her choir for most of the eighties.

   Similarinvolved

   Note

   A plural noun works here as an adjective after be, so a single person can be lovers with another, just as one can be friends with someone. The pattern belongs chiefly to LGBTQ speech and writing: Liz Smith, in The Advocate in 2000, says she has thousands of friends she has never been lovers with. Elsewhere English more often puts it as two people being lovers.

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