Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to caress, to hug, to embrace, also used fig.

1876		J. Habberton Helen’s Babies 35: I was only a-lovin’ you cos you was good [DARE].
1889		Harper’s New Monthly Mag. 79 271: Putting his arms round her neck [he] ‘loved’ her with his cheek against hers [DARE].
1919		Transcript Foster Inq. in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 28: ‘Let’s love it (up),’ exclaimed Goldstein as he threw his arm over Crawford and kissed him.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 162: I like my little girl to pet me an love me up a little.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 30: The dark dandies were loving up their pansies.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 395: They went out in the pantry... and she let him love up her up.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 47: I’d rather be loving you.
1949		J.H. Burns Lucifer with a Book 309: There on a settee he loved her up in a heavy way.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 239: She put this [stole] over us and loved me up with her finger.
1971		Winick & Kinsie Lively Commerce 174: A girl may approach a customer and say, ‘Let’s go to the back of the room so I can really love you up.’.
1974		D. Goines Daddy Cool (1997) 119: The sight of Tiny loving the girl filled Buddy with a burning desire.
1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 97: Blood’ll run in the streets if I catch you lovin’ it up with those Freo sluts at that nightclub.
1999		Guardian Rev. 29 Oct. 16: It [Melody Maker] got loved-up with the hippies of the 60s.
2000		Observer Mag. 25 Jan. 31: The early Nineties’ loved-up culture.

2. to have sexual intercourse.

1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 83: I had to carry you up into the barracks. You said you were goin’ back and love up that goddam girl.
1929		T. Delaney ‘Down on Pennsylvania Avenue’ 🎵 When the broads is broke and can’t pay rent / Get good loving, boys, for fifteen cents.
1933		N. West ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ in Coll. Works (1975) 266: Gee, I’d love to have him love me up.
1934		H. Hart ‘I Lets My Daddy Do That’ 🎵 You can milk my cow, use the cream / But when it comes to loving me that will be in a dream / I let my daddy do that.
1947		C. Waterford ‘Move Your Hand, Baby’ 🎵 Well, move your hand baby / I’ve got loving on my mind .
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 201: They ain’t anythin’ Ah wouldn’t give to be lovin’ it up with a woman now.
1953		‘Curt Cannon’ ‘Now Die In It’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 64: The papers said you went into the bedroom and found him loving your wife.
1956		H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 11: Get your first loving-up from somebody needs it of you, daughter-a-mine.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 79: Have some snap. It makes you love like mad.
1970		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 225: I ain’t had no lovin’ since eighteen-ten.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 139: Love – Sex.
2007		W.D. Myers ‘madonna’ in What They Found 159: [H]e started talking about how I ‘owed him some loving.’ [...] I didn’t owe that fool nothing but I did want to know what it was like to have sex.

3. (drugs) to render someone intoxicated with MDMA [backf. from loved-up adj. (2)].

2002

(con. 1997) W. Self Dorian 227: Invariably, he’d been out all night in the clubs, and a lick of his sweat alone could have loved-up another.

4. to be very fond of.

1999		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 7: love – like someone a lot, especially with a homosexual connotation: ‘We love each other, but we don’t “love” each other if you know what I mean.’.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 123: He’s seriously loved-up with Mandy, his childhood sweetheart.