(plural: ‘doves‘; pronunciation: the letters ‘do’ are said with a ‘du’ sound as in “dug” — ‘duv’)
a gentle and innocent person;
a person, especially a politician, who supports peace or negotiations in place of war,
a dove — an innocent person
e.g.
Angelina is a dove; everybody likes her for the way she conducts herself with others.
All his friends advised Marc not to cheat his girlfriend because she’s so sweet and a real dove.
More and more doves in the political arena are coming forward criticising the government’s foreign policy and the involvement in wars with other nations.
The world is full of doves and hawks — doves being the gentle and innocent kind and hawks being the rude and aggressive kind, and every person is free to choose who to appreciate and who to condemn!
Note: The definition of a ‘dove’ in investment business is an expert or advisor who recommends low interest rate investments. For the full definition of this term in this context, please click here.
Language Usage: ‘Dove’ with a different pronunciation — the letters ‘do’ said with a ‘do’ sound as in “dope” or the letter ‘o’ rhyming with the letter ‘o’ in “toe”, is also used as the past tense form of the verb ‘dive’ — “dive – dove/dived – dived”, which means ‘to jump into something with head first, usually swimmers jumping into the pool with head first and the arms together stretched forward that touch the water surface before the head’.
For a bolg post that asks and answers the question what are doves and hawks, please click here, for an article on war doves, please click here, for a newspaper article about Obama’s administration going from anti-war dove to warmongers, please click here and for an article about doves in Israel, please click here.
Note: ‘Dove’, always with a capital ‘D’, is used to refer to a constilation, a group of stars in the sky that are imagined to show some sign or shape used in astrology, also called Columba. For an informative article on the Dove constellation, please click here.
A more common meaning is a bird, a type of white pigeon.
If directed from Animals in Language, return to “dove“.
BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language.
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