flirt
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /flɜːt/
ipa: /flɝt/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
Forms: form: flirts
form: flirting
form: flirted
form: flirted
Etymology: 1553, from the merger of Early Modern English flirt (“to flick”), flurt (“to mock, jibe, scorn”), and flirt, flurt (“a giddy girl”). Of obscure origin and relation. Apparently related to similar words in Germanic, all of apparently onomatopoeic origin, compare Low German flirt (“a flick of the fingers, a light blow”), Low German flirtje (“a giddy girl”), Low German flirtje (“a flirt”), German Flittchen (“a flirt; tart; hussy”), Norwegian flira (“to giggle, titter”). Compare also Early Modern English jillflirt, gillian flirt, and flirt-gill (“a flirt”), and Scots flird (“a trifling", also, "to jibe, jeer at, talk idly, flirt, flaunt”), which is perhaps from Middle English flerd (“mockery, fraud, deception”), from Old English fleard (“nonsense, vanity, folly, deception”); potentially related to Icelandic flærð (“trickiness, deceit”), Swedish flärd (“vanity, frivolity, flamboyance”), Dutch flard (“tatter, shred”). See flird.
Senses: examples: text: They flirt water in each other's faces.
text: to flirt a glove, or a handkerchief
text: The carpenter himself, going with another man to furl the main-top-gallant-sail in a squall, was nearly pushed from the rigging by an unseen hand; and his shipmate swore that a wet hammock was flirted in his face.
ref: 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
text: She laughed […] while she flirted a soiled pocket-handkerchief at him.
ref: 1891, Henry James, The Pupil^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AThe_Lesson_of_the_Master%2C_The_Marriages%2C_The_Pupil%2C_Brooksmith%2C_The_Solution%2C_Sir_Edmund_Orme_(New_York_%26_London%2C_Macmillan_%26_Co.%2C_1892).djvu/155), page 141:
text: She [Mollie, the mare] took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with.
ref: 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
glosses: To throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement; to fling.
examples: text: I am ashamed; I am scorned; I am flirted.
ref: 1621 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Wild-Goose Chase; a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii:
text: Asinius Pollio[…], having written many invectives against Plancus, staid untill he were dead to publish them. It was rather to flurt at a blind man, and raile in a dead mans eare, and to offend a senselesse man, than incurre the danger of his revenge.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 27, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
glosses: To jeer at; to mock.
examples: text: Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal.
ref: 2012, Lenora Worth, Sweetheart Reunion:
glosses: To dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.
examples: text: Chatterer flirted his tale in the saucy way he has, and his eyes twinkled.
ref: 1915, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter XXI, in The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company:
glosses: To blurt out.
examples: text: Of course, the young people flirted, for that diversion is apparently irradicable even in the "best society".
ref: 1876, Louisa May Alcott, “Scarlet Stockings”, in Silver Pitchers: and Independence:
text: Dr Hutchinson, who told jurors that he had been married for 37 years and that his son was a policeman, said he enjoyed flirting with the woman, was flattered by her attention and was anticipating patting her bottom again - but had no intention of seducing her.
ref: 2006 April 22, “Accuser was flirting, says don”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To play at courtship; to talk with teasing affection, to insinuate sexual attraction in a playful (especially conversational) way.
examples: text: I've thrown away my reputation, self-respect, money, health and happiness through the use of drugs and alcohol; I can teach her how fragile a reputation is, how a fool and their money are soon parted, and how dangerous it is to flirt with drugs.
ref: 2009, Kenneth Lavoie, Hold Daddy's Hand: A Father's ageless book of wisdom for his daughter:
text: The various episodes of thinkers flirting with the idea of an infinite universe, starting with early Greek speculations and running through Cusa in the Renaissance, came to fruition as a central element in the Scientific Revolution.
ref: 2014, David R. Topper, Idolatry and Infinity: Of Art, Math, and God, page 67:
glosses: To experiment, or tentatively engage, with; to become involved in passing with.
Synonyms: word: charm
word: come on to
word: coquet
word: dally
word: fool around
word: gallivant
word: get fresh
word: hit on
word: make a move on
word: make an advance
word: make eyes at
word: play the field
word: put the make on
word: tease
Hypernyms: word: harlotize
word: woo
Hyponyms: word: philander
Related terms: word: promiscuous woman
word: courtship
word: clit tease
word: blue-baller
word: cock tease
word: cocktease
word: cockteaser
word: prickteaser