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valentine

1. A sweetheart chosen on St. Valentine's day.

2. A letter containing professions of love, or a missive of a sentimental, comic, or burlesque character, sent on St. Valentine's day. St. Valentine's Day, a day sacred to St. Valentine; the 14th of february. It was a very old notion, alluded to by Shakespeare, that on this day birds begin to mate. Hence, perhaps, arose the custom of sending love tokens at that time.