Definition of "amor"

Don Ped. That all the care I took of myself should be thrown away—never exposing myself to the night air; never fatiguing myself beyond a gentle perspiration, so careful of my diet, so regular in my hours, so chaste in my amors [originally amours], and after all this, in the evening of my days to have a long spado run through my guts, and look like a blue-breech’d fly with a corking pin sticking in it!

1775, Robert Jephson, “The Hotel”, in Braganza. A Tragedy. […], Dublin: […] Messrs. Exshaw, Sleater, Potts, Chamberlaine, Williams, Wilson, Husband, Porter, Walker, Jenkin, Flyn, and Hillary, page 41; republished as “The Hotel”, in The English and American Stage, volume VI, New York, N.Y.: […] David Longworth, […], 1807, act II, scene II, pages 31–32

In this manner I succeed in my amors, and would advise thee to take the same method.

1810 September, “Gil Blas […] a fine gentleman”, in The Adventures of Gil Blas, of Santillane, Abridged, Leominster: […] Salmon Wilder, for Isaiah Thomas, Jun., page 70

‘Dulce, will you go to the masquerade-ball to night?’ said I to my lesser-half, on a bright evening during the gayest part of the ‘carnival season.’ / ‘No, my amor,’ answered she; ‘I am ill this evening; do n’t go out to-night, but stay by my side, and let your cheering presence save a doctor’s fee.’

1845 April, Ned Buntline, “A Night-Adventure in Cuba”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXV, number 4, New York, N.Y.: […] John Allen, […], page 326

But even in the midst of my love affairs I always retained sufficient sense to criticise the moral and intellectual calibre of the women I loved, and I held strong views on the advisability of mental and moral sympathies and congenial tastes existing between people who married. In my amors I had hitherto found no intellectual equality or sympathies.

1905, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Selection in Man, page 240

The late Queen was a model in this respect about the amors of His Majesty, even allowing his mistresses to become her ladies-in-waiting.

1981, Katherine Yorke, Falcon Gold, Pinnacle Books, page 247

“Imply once more that I am of that breed who prefer amors with their own sex and I shall blow your head off,” he said levelly. […] But he was merely an accomplished flirt and she was the impoverished Mrs. Carruthers, married to a drunk and a wastrel, and had spent a precious part of the evening allowing herself to be questioned about the amors of a rake by a silly girl. […] I do not like to broadcast my amors about the town.

1991, M. C. Beaton, His Lordship’s Pleasure (The Regency Intrigue Series), New York, N.Y.: RosettaBooks, published 2011

The years of safe sex and condoms being years hence, we live with a libertine fatalism and I’m too ignorant and horny to calibrate my amors to the female cycle.

2003, Sting, Broken Music: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: The Dial Press, page 123