lovey

love +‎ -y

lovey (plural loveys)

1. (UK) An informal mode of address (associated most often with actors and the like).
   • 1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 118:

     “Now, my lovey, eat it up like a good girl,” said nurse, setting her lips in a way that Bertha knew, and that meant she had come into the nursery at another wrong moment.

2. A baby's toy, blanket, or other object of affection
   • 1987, Kathryn Castle, The Infant & Toddler Handbook: Invitations for Optimum Early Development:

     Young children need to have certain love objects or “loveys” such as teddy bears around all the time.

   • 1987 June, Working Mother, volume 10, number 6, page 96:

     If loveys can help children grow up, he says, "it seems obvious to me that we should treasure them. […] If a child has formed an attachment to a lovey, it's important that his need be respected by his caregivers

   • 2010, Elizabeth Pantley, The No-Cry Separation Anxiety Solution:

     A lovey can be a comfort to your child and ease the pain of separation.

• “lovey”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.