love-lock

plural love-locks

1. A padlock symbolizing two people's love for each other.

   1 more example

   In the early 2000s, two of Paris' famous bridges were transformed into what are called “Love Bridges,” their railings completely covered with “love-locks,” padlocks on which couples from around the world carve their initials before attaching them and then throwing the keys into the Seine as a declaration of undying passion.

   2014, Joan DeJean, How Paris Became Paris, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 208

   Synonyms: love lock, love padlock

2. alternativeAlternative form of lovelock.

   “Do you see anything there?” I looked at the broad plumed hat, the curling love-locks, the white lace collar, and the straight, severe face which was framed between them.

   1901, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 13, in The Hound of the Baskervilles

   1 more example

   These love-locks, or ear-locks, in which too many of our nation have of late begun to glory, whatever they may seem to be in the eyes and judgement of many humorous, singular, effeminate, ruffianly, vain-glorious or time-serving persons, who repute and deem them a very generous, necessary, beautiful, and comely ornament; […]

   1818, Samuel Johnson, quoting William Prynne, Unloveliness of Love-Locks, quoted in A Dictionary of the English Language