puppy love
7
3.7
- noun
- /ˈpʌpi lʌv/
- Informal
:
amor de cachorro
- His friends joke that the affection he feels for his new girlfriend is just puppy love and won't last beyond the winter break.
- a case of puppy love
- a little puppy love
- just puppy love
It was about these two teenagers, you know, puppy love, like just being ridiculous with with overcome with emotions.
- It was about these two teenagers, you know, puppy love, like just being ridiculous with with overcome with emotions.
Examples
-
Looks like you got a bad case of puppy love.
-
So the priesthood was a very attractive goal for me at the pivotal age of fourteen, in spite of a few puppy-love crushes that didn't follow me to the seminary.
Academic text (2008) -
- Yeah, sounds like puppy love to me.
-
Great, so now it's puppy love.
-
A boy and a girl, obviously suffering from a severe case of puppy love, were seated there.
Fiction book (2001) -
And the last thing I need is this puppy love subplot.
-
She described their relationship as "like a puppy love thing; we were really close."
Academic text (2000) -
It didn't seem a simple case of puppy love to me, however.
Blog text (3) -
I suddenly remembered my hopeless puppy love in ninth grade and how Illimar was always at my side, how he tried to shake my melancholy with jokes, how he taught me how to act towards rivals, how he played the go-between and delivered letters to girls, and how he even accompanied me on visits to the windows of certain girls in order to alleviate my silly sense of shame.
Fiction book (1993) -
The intended audience of the bestselling young adult novel the film is based on will be untroubled by any midlife existential crisis, and based on their relative unfamiliarity with the genre, will probably be enthralled by all the puppy love melodrama.
Blog text (5)
Synonyms
271
2.9
A short strong feeling of attraction to someone you like
20
5.1
A strong short feeling of attraction that is not true love
1
7.5
A short innocent romantic feeling that teenagers often have
1
9.9
A strong romantic crush on someone that often fades
How Affectionate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'puppy' evokes youth/inexperience and combined with 'love' signals a youthful or immature affection, so a B1 learner who knows both words can plausibly infer it refers to love involving young or inexperienced people. However, the specific pragmatic nuance that it is not serious or lasting is a metaphorical extension and may not be fully predictable without exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Puppy love comes from the image of a young puppy showing quick, excited love that is sweet but not deep. So it describes the strong but 'not serious' romantic feelings many young people have.