A letter written by a lover to the beloved, and expressing amatory sentiments.
[a. 1240. Wohunge, in Cott. Hom., 283. A swete ihesu þu oppnes me þin herte for to cnawe witerliche and in to reden trewe luue lettres.]
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 1. What! haue I scap’d loue-letters in the holly-day-time of my beauty, and am I now a subiect for them?
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 260. A loue-letter brought her by her maid.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Lady Rich, 16 March. I have got for you, as you desire, a Turkish love-letter.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. 21. Our village beauty had fairly reached her twentieth year … without the slightest suspicion of her having ever written a love-letter.
1901. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 496/1. The young people interchange love-letters.
