true-love knot, true lover's knot
Also † true-love's knot (obs.).
A kind of knot, of a complicated and ornamental form (usually either a double-looped bow, or a knot formed of two loops intertwined), used as a symbol of true love; a figure of this. Also fig. or allusively.
| α 1495 Will J. Rogers (Somerset Ho.), Treue loue knottes. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. vii. 46 Ile knit it vp in silken strings, With twentie od-conceited true-loue knots. 1643 Wither Campo Musæ 74 A Peace, that by a true-love-knot, shall knit Three Nations..into One. 1877 W. Jones Finger-ring 414 True-love knots were common [on rings]. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 283/1 Treweloves knotte, neu damours. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1877) 74 Sleeues..tyed with true-loues knottes (for so they call them). 1662 Hibbert Body Div. ii. 145 The Lords brother, tyed unto him with a true-loves-knot. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 566 I'll carve your name on Barks of Trees, With True-loves knots, and Flourishes. |
| γ 1615 R. Brathwait (title) Loves Labyrinth: or The true-Louers knot. 1679 Logan Treat. Hon. ii. 177 Or, on a Cheveron, Gules, a true Lovers Knot of the first. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. x, Splendid cake, covered with Cupids, silver, and true-lover's knots. 1906 Lady 12 July 82/1 Pretty but simple hair ornaments are true-lovers' knots of sequined gauze, very stiffly wired. |