Idioms: Relationships & Love

All’s fair in love and war.
something that you say which means behaviour that is unpleasant or not fair is acceptable during an argument or competition
We weren’t cheating, we were just playing to win. Anyway, all’s fair in love and war.

ask for someone’s hand in marriage
ask someone to marry you
After dating his girlfriend for several years he finally asked for her hand in marriage.

attracted to (someone)
feel a physical or emotional attraction to someone
I was attracted to the woman at the party from the moment that I first met her.

blind date
a date where the two people have never met before
I went on a blind date in university but it did not work out very well.

break someone’s heart
cause someone emotional pain
The man broke his girlfriend’s heart when he told her that he was no longer in love with her.

break up
end a relationship
They broke up after dating for more than three years.

crazy about (someone)
think that another person is wonderful
My cousin has been crazy about the bank manager for many months now.

cupboard love
(British & Australian)
love that you give in order to get something from someone.
I suspected all along it was just cupboard love, and what she really liked about him was his car.

date someone
go on or have a date with someone
My sister has been dating her boyfriend for over two years now.

dig someone
like someone a lot (dig someone is not a commonly used idiom now)
She really digs the boy in her chemistry class.

double date
a date where two couples get together to do something
It was a good idea to go on the double date even though everybody wanted to do something different.

dump someone
end a relationship by telling someone that you don’t want to see him or her
The woman dumped her boyfriend after they began to have many fights.

fall in love (with someone)
to begin to love someone.
The movie tells the story of a country doctor who falls in love with a beautiful waitress. I was thinking about falling in love for the first time and trying to remember my first boyfriend.

fall in love (with something)
to become strongly attracted to a place, activity, or thing.
We spent three weeks in Georgetown and absolutely fell in love with it. I test drove the car and I just fell in love.

fall for (someone)
fall in love with someone
She always seems to fall for the wrong person and is never happy.

find Mr. Right
find the right or perfect person
She is always hoping to find Mr. Right but so far she hasn’t had any luck.

first love
the first person that one falls in love with
Her first love was with a boy in her high school art class.

get along with someone
have a good friendly relationship with someone
The woman gets along with her friends very well.

get back together
return to a relationship or marriage after breaking up
The man got back together with his girlfriend after separating for several months last winter.

get engaged
decide to marry someone
He got engaged to his wife several years before they actually got married.

get hitched
get married
My sister and her boyfriend surprised everyone by suddenly getting hitched last weekend.

get serious
a relationship becomes serious and long-term
The two students dated for several months before they began to get serious.

give someone (or something) a second chance
try to save a relationship by forgiving and welcoming the other person back
The girl’s boyfriend left her for several months but when he wanted to come back she was happy to give him a second chance.

go dutch
a date where each person pays half of the expenses
In university many of the students had little money so they often went dutch when they were on a date.

good together
two people who get along well with each other
They are very good together and nobody has ever seen them argue.

go out with someone
go on a date or be dating someone
I have been going out with a woman from my hiking club for several months now.

go steady
date one person regularly (not so common recently but at one time used often by teenagers)
The two students have been going steady for three years now.

have a crush (on someone)
have strong feelings of love for someone (often for a short time and with no results)
The young girl had a crush on her teacher in junior high school but of course it was an impossible situation.

have a thing for (someone)
be attracted and care a lot about someone
She seems to have a thing for the new guy who just started to work at her company.

head over heels (in love)
to be in love with someone very much, especially at the beginning of a relationship
It’s obvious that they’re head over heels in love with each other.

hit it off (with someone)
get along well with someone (usually from the beginning)
I hit it off with a woman in my photography class and we have been dating for several months now.

hung up on someone
be obsessed with another person
The young woman has been hung up on a member of her tennis club for many months now.

I must/I’ll love you and leave you. (humorous)
something that you say when you say goodbye to someone that you are leaving.
Well, I’m sure you’ve got work to be doing so I’ll love you and leave you.

interested in (someone)
have a romantic interest in someone and possibly want to date that person
My sister has been interested in one of the students in her university biology class for many months now.

kiss and makeup
become friends again after a fight or argument
After they have a fight the couple is always very quick to kiss and make up.

labour of love
(British & Australian, American & Australian)
an activity that is hard work but that you do because you enjoy it.
He prefers to paint the house himself – it’s a real labour of love.

love at first sight
an immediate, strong attraction for someone you just met.
She took an immediate liking to him? It was love at first sight.

love child
a child whose parents are not married to each other.
He allegedly has a love child in Australia from an affair with a much younger woman.

love handles
(humorous)
a layer of extra fat around the middle of a person’s body.
You wouldn’t want me to lose my love handles, would you?

the love of one’s life
humorous)
the person that you love most in all your life.
And there I was, watching the love of my life board a plane to go to the other side of the world.

love someone/something to bits
(informal)
to like or to love someone or something a lot.
Clive’s the nicest person I know. I love him to bits. ‘Do you like your new bike, then?’ ‘Oh, I love it to bits!’

love someone to death
to feel extremely strong affection for someone.
She is easy to work with, and everyone in the office loves her to death.

love-in
(informal)
a situation where two or more people praise each other a lot, especially when the praise is more than they deserve.
The awards ceremony, as usual, was a love-in.

leave someone for someone else
end a relationship with your partner and start a relationship with someone else
The man left his wife for his secretary but soon discovered that his life was worse than before.

made for each other
two people who get along extremely well
Although we had some differences we got along very well together and seemed to be made for each other.

make eyes at someone
look at someone in a way that makes it clear that you like that person and find them attractive
The man became angry when he thought that his girlfriend was making eyes at someone else at the party.

make up
when two people forgive each other after an argument or begin to see each other again after ending a relationship
The couple had a big fight at the restaurant but they quickly made up and things quickly got back to normal.

a match made in heaven
a couple who get along perfectly
When the two people finally got together it was a match made in heaven and everyone thought that they would stay together forever.

meet/find the right girl/guy
find the right partner, the one to marry
When she moved to Madrid she joked that she would never return home if she met the right guy.

Misery loves company.
something that you say which means that people who are feeling sad usually want the people they are with to also feel sad.
On a bad day, she isn’t satisfied till the entire family is in tears. Misery loves company.

no love lost
no feelings of respect, admiration, or affection.
They had a curious relationship ? there was no love lost there.
Usage notes: often used with between: There’s no love lost between Morris and his publisher.

not for love nor/or money
if you say that you cannot or will not do something for love nor money, you mean that it is impossible to do or that you will not do it whatever happens.
It’s incredibly popular. You can’t get tickets for love nor money. He’s hopeless and unreliable. I wouldn’t give him a job for love nor money.

on the rocks
a relationship or a marriage that is experiencing problems
They are experiencing many problems at the moment and their relationship appears to be on the rocks.

the one (for someone)
the right partner, the one to marry
As soon as I introduced my girlfriend to my mother she said that she was probably the one for me.

one and only
the only person that one loves
She was his one and only and he felt lost when the relationship ended.

patch up a relationship
repair a broken relationship
Although the couple had been fighting and wanted to separate they managed to patch up their relationship and are now very happy together.

perfect couple
two people who appear to get along perfectly
Our neighbours have always seemed to be the perfect couple.

pop the question
ask someone to marry you
He put much thought into his possible wedding before he actually decided to pop the question.

puppy love
romantic love which a young person feels for someone and which usually disappears as they become older
At the time I was sure I would marry him when I grew up but of course it was just puppy love.

say “I do”
get married (during a wedding ceremony it is common to say “I do” when you agree to marry your partner)
He loved the woman very much and was hoping that she would say “I do” as soon as they could make the wedding arrangements.

seeing someone
be dating someone on a regular basis
The woman was not seeing anyone when she met a man who she liked at the party.

send one’s love to someone
to give a message of affection from you to someone else.
Maggie asked me to send her love to you and the boys.

set a date
decide on a date for a wedding
After thinking about marriage for a long time they have finally decided to set a date.

settle down
establish a regular routine after getting married
After dating dozens of women the young man finally decided to settle down.

split up
two people in a relationship decide to end their relationship
My sister’s daughter and her boyfriend decided to split up after being together for seven years.

steal someone’s heart
cause someone to fall in love with you
She quickly stole the heart of the man who was working beside her at her office.

take one’s vows
get married and take your wedding vows (promises)
They were taking their vows down at the county courthouse when I came for a visit.

those three little words
the words “I love you”
After several months of dating the young man finally said those three little words to his girlfriend.

tie the knot
get married
After dating for several years the young couple suddenly decided to tie the knot.

true love
a genuine feeling of romantic love
It seemed like true love until we began to fight all of the time.

unrequited love
love that is not returned, one-way love
The woman was in love with the president of her company but from the beginning it was a case of unrequited love.

walk down the aisle together
get married (in this case in a Christian church where many weddings take place and where the bride walks down the aisle to the altar)
They get along very well and they have finally decided to walk down the aisle and begin their life together.

walk out on
abandon your partner and end a relationship
The man walked out on his wife and their small baby and nobody knew the reason why.

whisper sweet nothings in someone’s ear
romantic, intimate talk
The movie was rather romantic and most of the scenes had the actor whispering sweet nothings in the ear of the actress.