love handle
7
3.9
- noun
- /lʌv ˈhændl/
- Informal
:
rollito
- When I do gain weight, it goes two places: love handles and neck/chin.
- get rid of love handles
- liposuction for love handles
- lose your love handles
So fat in in their upper arms and their thighs and their booty on the outside of their belly, their love handles, their their back boobs, their front boobs.
- So fat in in their upper arms and their thighs and their booty on the outside of their belly, their love handles, their their back boobs, their front boobs.
Examples
-
Oh, I hate the love handles.
-
Body fat distribution in terms of your love handles and your lean stomach is genetic.
Blog text (8) -
Also, my love handles or skin right here, just like the back.
-
But I still have love handles.
Blog text (19) -
Yeah, I'm gonna try and work off these love handles.
-
Help you to take care of those love handles of yours now, Walter Jr.
-
I mean, if I have love handles now, there's no getting rid of them.
Blog text (19) -
So the fact that you have a toned stomach and love handles is not unusual.
Blog text (8) -
I'm quite skinny, but I have a ring of fat around my midsection; it's like a pair of stubborn love handles.
Blog text (7) -
She was unhappy with how her love handles looked in the dress.
Synonyms
106
4.0
The stomach or belly, often the round front part of the body where food goes after you eat
3
4.9
Extra fat around the waist that looks like a round band
1
7.5
A layer of fat that spills over a tight waistband of trousers or a skirt
1
5.5
Having extra fat around the waist
How Noticeable
1
3.5
1
5.5
- Offensive
3
4.9
- Informal
7
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
love + handle
The sense 'a small amount of excess fat at the sides of the waist' is not transparently derived from the literal meanings of 'love' (affection) and 'handle' (a thing to hold). The phrase is an idiomatic, culturally based metaphor (the area one might grasp affectionately) and so its meaning is unpredictable for a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The noun love handle comes from a playful image: one popular story says a partner's hand resting on the small roll of fat at the side of the waist looked like a handle to hold while showing love. That's why love handle now means 'a small amount of excess fat at the sides of the waist'.