light-o'-love

• light o' love
• light-of-love

light-o'-love (plural lights-o'-love)

1. An old tune of a dance, the name of which made it a proverbial expression of levity, especially in love matters.
   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Best sing it to the tune of light o' love.

2. Someone who is inconstant in love; a flirt. [from 16th c.]
   • 1626 February 13 (licensing date), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Noble Gentleman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     You light-o'-love, a word or two.

3. A promiscuous woman, a prostitute; a mistress or female lover. [from 16th c.]
   • 1866, Various, The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866, page 618:

     That is why a priest's light-o'-love is always some honest man's wife.

   • 1915, DH Lawrence, The Rainbow, Vintage, published 2011, page 18:

     He had still another turn with a light-o'-love.

• (promiscuous woman): See also Thesaurus:promiscuous woman

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “light-o'-love”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “light-o'-love”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.