Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a lover, a term of affection.

14?		Lydgate Balade Commend. Our Lady 78: O trusty turtle, trewest of al trewe [OED].
1575		J. Smith Misticall Deuise n.p.: Aiijb, My darling and my harts desyre, my onely Turtle Doue [OED].
1594		Lyly Mother Bombie IV i: Well sayd, I perceiue turtles flie in couples.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle III ii: Did I not tell you these turtles were together?
1612		N. Field Woman is a Weathercock IV ii: Now, turtle, mourning still for the party? for whom are you working that purse?
1721		Beckingham ‘Wishing his Mistress would never cease Kissing him’ in Pleasures of Coition 53: My pretty charming Turtle Dove.
1765		H. Brooke Fool of Quality I 36: Next to these were two Pair of very ill-mated Turtles.
1785		Nightly Sports of Venus 5: Come, pretty Turtle, softest Dove.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry I ii: Our nags won’t stay for our turtles.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 25 Sept. 3/2: I never tells my ‘klina’ / She’s a little turtle dove.
1905		Sporting Times 11 Feb. 4/2: She has gone and fallen in love with her husband, and says they are turtle doves.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Paper Love’ Sporting Times 17 Dec. 1/3: Just that sort of turtle-dove / Was young Adolphus Wafer; / The love he made was paper love, / He thought it would be safer.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1907

W.M. Raine Wyoming (1908) 48: Denver’s some in the turtle-dove business, according to that hash-slinger in Cheyenne.