phrase

• 1An allusive term for homosexuality.

  Synonyms

  sexual orientation, orientation, sexual preference, leaning, persuasion

  Origin

  First appearing in ‘Two Loves’, a poem by the British author Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945), the phrase is popularly associated with Oscar Wilde as a result of its use during his trial for homosexual offences in 1895.

  1. 1.1Used to refer to a preference or practice regarded as unacceptable or taboo.
     ‘a fondness for nuclear power was the love that dare not speak its name among green campaigners’
     More example sentences

     • ‘For the LNP, privatisation could be the love that dare not speak its name.’
     • ‘One Tory MP has suggested that Europhilia on his party's backbenches was now "the love that dare not speak its name".’
     • ‘I have fallen prey to the love that dare not speak its name: I am in the thrall of a music that is not cool, never will be cool, and never has been cool.’
     • ‘It is the love that dare not speak its name - the love for the atomic bomb and for nuclear power.’
     • ‘While he was helping flog 13 million records to teenyboppers, he harboured a love that dare not speak its name: he adored rock.’
     • ‘There are many types of love, a man's love for a fine wine, or the love shared by a young couple just beginning a romance, but today we are concerned with the love that dare not speak its name, a website's love for a local football manager.’
     • ‘During the 1990s, avarice was the love that dare not speak its name.’
     • ‘Redistribution remains the policy that dare not speak its name.’
     • ‘On the other side, immigration is the issue that dare not speak its name.’