love 'em and leave 'em
Also found in: Wikipedia.
love them and leave them
cliché The practice or pattern of engaging in sex with someone and then ceasing contact with them before a relationship can form. "Them" is often shortened colloquially to "’em." I went through a pretty toxic phase in college in which I felt a real disdain for committed relationships. Love 'em and leave 'em, that was my motto. A: "So, are you going to meet up again with that woman you took home from the bar?" B: "I called her, but I haven't heard back. I get feeling that she's the love-them-and-leave-them type."
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
love 'em and leave 'em
Seduce a woman and then abandon her. This expression, with its rakish Edwardian sound, was recorded only in 1923 in J. V. Weaver’s Finders: “Love ’em and Leave ’em—that’s me from now on.” However, an earlier citation (1885) recorded in the OED, love you and leave you, allegedly was a common saying in Chester (England) when a visitor was departing.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer