make love (third-person singular simple present makes love, present participle making love, simple past and past participle made love)

1. (archaic) To make amorous approaches (to); to woo, romance, court. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:woo

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗, stanza 7, page 494 ↗:

     So from thenceforth, when loue he to her made, / VVith better tearmes ſhe did him entertaine, / VVhich gaue him hope, and did him halfe perſvvade, / That he iunb time her ioyaunce ſhould obtaine.

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC ↗, page 275 ↗:

     [S]carcely had they passed the sweep-gate and joined the other carriage, than she found her subject cut up–her hand seized–her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her: availing himself of the precious opportunity, declaring sentiments which must already be well known, […]

   • 1878, Henry James, chapter VIII, in The Europeans‎, Macmillan and Co.:

     About a week afterwards she said to him, point-blank, “Are you seriously making love to your little cousin?”

   • 1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Baker’s Dozen”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC ↗, page 107 ↗:

     After all, the chief charm is in the fact of being made love to. You are making love to me, aren't you?

2. (euphemistic) To engage in sexual intercourse. [from 1950s]

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:copulate

• French: faire l'amour, croquer la pomme
• German: Liebe machen
• Italian: fare l'amore
• Portuguese: fazer amor
• Russian: заниматься любовь
• Spanish: hacer el amor