The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word AFFECTION
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
A
F
F
E
C
T
I
O
N
More clues leading to the result AFFECTION
- Love act? No thanks
- Liking cafe if not in a mess
- Mannerism designed to impress? No thanks, love!
- Love pretentiousness? No thanks
- Love of fiance developed, taking time
- Unusually fine act of warmth
- Tender feeling from foe — in fact that’s odd
- Strong liking for activity — hugging couple of females with excitement, to begin with
- Being pretentious, striking out at warmth of feeling
- Temperature within an office adjusted for warmth
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Love" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case love = affection.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does AFFECTION mean?
AFFECTION noun- The act of affecting or acting upon.
- The state of being affected, especially: a change in, or alteration of, the emotional state of a person or other animal, caused by a subjective affect (a subjective feeling or emotion), which arises in response to a stimulus which may result from either thought or perception.
- An attribute; a quality or property; a condition.
- An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind.
- A feeling of love or strong attachment.
- Disease; morbid symptom; malady.
- To feel affection for.