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Love vs Prefer - What's the difference?

love | prefer |

In transitive terms the difference between love and prefer

is that love is to lust for while prefer is to present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").

As verbs the difference between love and prefer

is that love is to have a strong affection for (someone or something) while prefer is to advance, promote (someone).

As a noun love

is strong affection.

As a proper noun Love

is {{surname|lang=en}.

love

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . The closing-of-a-letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

  • (label) Strong affection.
  • # An intense feeling of affection and care towards another person.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.}}
  • # A deep or abiding liking for something.
  • # A profound and caring attraction towards someone.
  • #* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • He on his side / Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love / Hung over her enamoured.
  • (countable) The object of one’s romantic feelings; a darling or sweetheart.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • Open the temple gates unto my love .
  • (colloquial)
  • (euphemistic) A sexual desire; sexual activity.
  • *1986, Ben Elton & al., ":
  • *:—What think you, my lord, of... love ?
  • *:—You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’.
  • (obsolete) A thin silk material.
  • * 1664 , (Robert Boyle), Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours,
  • Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love -Hood.
  • A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba .
  • Synonyms
    * (sense) baby, darling, lover, pet, sweetheart, honey, love bird * (term of address) mate, lover. darling, sweety
    Antonyms
    * (strong affection) hate, hatred, angst; malice, spite * (absence of love) indifference

    Verb

    (lov)
  • To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI
  • I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
  • * 2013 February 26, and (Nate Ruess), (Just Give Me a Reason) :
  • Just give me a reason, / just a little bit's enough, / just a second we're not broken, just bent / and we can learn to love again.
  • To need, thrive on.
  • (colloquial) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like .
  • To care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
  • * John 3:16
  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
  • * Matthew: 37-38
  • You shall love' the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole soul; you shall ' love your neighbor as yourself.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
  • To derive delight from a fact or situation.
  • To lust for.
  • (euphemistic) To have sex with, (perhaps from make love.)
  • Antonyms
    * hate, despise
    Derived terms
    * all's fair in love and war * cupboard love * in love * I love you * fall in love * first love * lady love * love affair * love at first sight * love bird/lovebird * love bite/lovebite * love bomb * love bug * lovebunny * love child * loved-up * love egg * love feast * love game * love grass * love handle * love-hate * love-in * love-in-a-mist * love is blind * love life * lovely * love-making * love match * love nest * love potion * lover * love rat * lovertine * love seat * loveship * love-shyness * lovesick * love song * lovestone * love story * love tap * love toy * love triangle * lovey-dovey * loving kindness * loyal love * make love * unrequited love * no love lost * puppy love * tough love * true love * unconditional love

    See also

    * charity

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . See also (l).

    Verb

    (lov)
  • To praise; commend.
  • To praise as of value; prize; set a price on.
  • Etymology 3

    From the phrase Neither for love nor for money , meaning "nothing". The previously held belief that it originated from the (etyl) term , due to its shape, is no longer widely accepted.

    Noun

    (-)
  • (racquet sports) Zero, no score.
  • So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.
  • * The Field
  • He won the match by three sets to love .
  • * John Betjeman, A Subaltern's Love Song
  • Love -thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, / The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, / With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, / I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.

    Statistics

    *

    prefer

    English

    Alternative forms

    * * preferre

    Verb

    (preferr)
  • *, II.3.2:
  • *:Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers.
  • (lb) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
  • :
  • *
  • *:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;."
  • (lb) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").
  • *1630 , , True Travels , in Kupperman 1988, p.36:
  • *:one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King James.
  • *1817 , (Walter Scott), , XVII:
  • *:Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept.
  • Usage notes

    * The verb can be used in three different forms: *
  • prefer'' + noun + ''to'' (or ''over'') + noun. Example: ''I prefer coffee to tea .
  • *
  • prefer'' + gerund + ''to'' (or ''over'') + gerund. Example: ''I prefer skiing to swimming .
  • *
  • prefer'' + full infinitive + ''rather than'' + bare infinitive. Example: ''I prefer to eat fish rather than (eat) meat .
  • Derived terms

    * preference * preferential