cupboard love?

[imajenarry]

can anyone please tell me what this term means.i heard it for the first time fairly recently and no-one i've asked knows what it is. does it mean a relationship based on what one partner can provide for the other?

[Feena]

Roughly translated,its means somone showing someone else affection for their own gain imaj.

[heathfield]

Usually applied to pets, where the owner thinks the animal loves them, when in fact the animal is only regarding their owner as a source of food.

[kinkykin]

Cupboard Love is an English term referring to affection that is given purely to gain a reward.

"cupboard love" comes from the way in which a cat will give a cupboard containing it's food superficial 'love' when it wants to be fed.

But if you want the Freudian explaination, it stems from the feeding aspect, so Freud believed that healthy attachments are formed when feeding practices satisfy the infants needs for security, food and oral gratification.

[VS Prasad]

1)(U.K.) false show of affection: affection that is motivated by self-interest. (cupboard in the obsolete sense "food").

2) Love that you give in order to get something from someone. Like cats. They love you for what's in your cupboard.

3) a personal attachment that appears to be motivated by love but in fact stems from the hope of gain. [Origin: 1750�60]

4) interested love, or that which has an eye to the cupboard. ``A cupboard love is seldom true.'' --Poor Robin. [Colloq.]

5) Love from interested motives. The allusion is to the love of children to some indulgent person who gives them something nice from her cupboard.

6) An insincere show of affection towards someone or something in return for some kind of material gain.

"I suspected all along it was just cupboard love, and what she really liked about him was his car".
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To cry cupboard, to call for food; to express hunger. [Colloq.] ``My stomach cries cupboard.'' --W. Irving.

[Banana Boat]

When i was younger and i used to be all nice to my mum & dad, they used to say it was only 'cupboard love,' meaning that i was only being nice to them beacuse i wanted something from them!