loves

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of love.

   Every child in the class loves the new reading corner.

   He loves long walks along the river after dinner.

   Note

   The everyday present of a verb that usually names a state rather than an action, so the simple form does the work: she loves jazz states a lasting feeling, where she is loving jazz would sound marked. Context can turn it ironic, as in he loves being kept waiting, which means the opposite. In its emphatic use it is simply a stronger likes: she loves a good argument.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of love.

   The novel traces the heroine's successive loves across three decades.

   He spoke fondly of the many loves of his younger years.

   Note

   A plural that only some meanings of love will take. Love as a deep caring for another's existence stays uncountable, but the countable kinds pluralize freely: sweethearts (his first loves), enthusiasms (her two great loves, music and the sea), passing attractions. The same spelling serves as the verb form (she loves), so a determiner or adjective in front, such as many loves or early loves, marks the noun.

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