loving

loving, affectionate, devoted, fond, doting are comparable when they mean feeling or showing love or strong liking.

Loving stresses the inward emotion and usually implies sincerity and depth of feeling

{

a loving father

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loving friends

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looking at it with eyes at once critical and loving, as if recalling the glow with which he had created it— Galsworthy

}

{

so we'll go no more a roving so late into the night, though the heart be still as loving, and the moon be still as bright— Byron

}

Affectionate often stresses demonstrativeness

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she is a very affectionate child

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he had an affectionate heart. He must love somebody— Austen

}

or implies the need for or fact of outward expression of inward feeling

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his affectionate care for his people was winning him lovz— Buchan

}

Devoted emphasizes attentiveness, sometimes implying little more than assiduousness, sometimes connoting self-dedication or active loyalty to the person or thing one loves or likes

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devoted lover

}

{

devoted disciple

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{

I did everything for him that the most devoted mother could do— Shaw

}

Fond implies affectionate attachment and often connotes foolish tenderness

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a loving husband is a very amiable character. A fond one I think is not so— John Wesley

}

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her preoccupation with petty things of no importance whatever was worthy of the finest traditions of fond motherhood— Bennett

}

When fond (of) and devoted (to) imply a strong predilection or addiction, they are not often clearly distinguished. However, one is fond of the theater who welcomes every opportunity to see a play; one is devoted to the theater who spends much of his time in seeing plays or in efforts to further the development of the drama. One may be fond of the country and yet not go there often, but if one is devoted to it, one prefers to spend most of one's time there.

Doting implies excessive fondness that leads to overindulgence in parents or fatuousness in lovers

{

doting mothers end by ruining their children— Hallam Tennyson

}

Analogous words: amorous, amatory, *erotic: *enamored, infatuated: attentive, considerate, *thoughtful: *impassioned, passionate, ardent, fervent: true, constant, *faithful

Antonyms: unloving

Contrasted words: *indifferent, unconcerned, aloof, detached: *cold, chilly, frigid: *faithless, false