For example, consider the following simple phrases one typically says upon entering a popular restaurant:
I love chicken.
I love fish.
If the person literally loves fish, he/she wouldn't really want to take its life and eat it. What they really mean to say is I love cutting and eating a fish
.
Does this come under Irony? But Irony is generally a deliberate attempt to reverse a meaning for creating humor.
Best Answer
If one word means its opposite, it's called an autantonym or contronym.
What you are referring to is called polysemy:
Love can be used reasonably and accurately with both versions you give, because language is more than the sum of its parts. Love is much more than one thing, though one word can be used.
Verbal irony is something different. After the Charlie Hebdo attack, verbal irony was everywhere, as in this cartoon.
Edited to add: OP's comment is an example of contronym:
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,/And the rocks melt wi' the sun;/And I will luve thee still, my dear,/While the sands o' life shall run.