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flirt

noun
/flɜːt/UK/flɚt/US/flɪɾt/

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.

  1. derived from flard — “tatter, shred”
  2. derived from flärd — “vanity, frivolity, flamboyance”
  3. derived from flærð — “trickiness, deceit”
  4. derived from flerd — “mockery, fraud, deception”
  5. derived from flird — “a trifling”
  6. derived from jillflirt
  7. derived from flira — “to giggle, titter”
  8. derived from Flittchen — “a flirt; tart; hussy”
  9. derived from flirtje — “a flirt”
  10. derived from flirtje — “a giddy girl”
  11. derived from flirt — “a flick of the fingers, a light blow”
  12. derived from flirt — “to flick”

Definitions

  1. A sudden jerk

    A sudden jerk; a quick throw or cast; a darting motion

    • several little flirts and vibrations
    • with many a flirt and flutter
    • an angry hectic in each cheek, a fierce flirt of her fan, and two or three short sniffs that betokened mischief

  2. Someone who flirts a lot or enjoys flirting

    Someone who flirts a lot or enjoys flirting; a flirtatious person.

    • Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us out of the fashionable world.

  3. An act of flirting.

  4. ›+ 11 more definitions

    1. A tentative or brief, passing engagement with something.

      • However, after a brief flirt with socialist realism , this method was abandoned and strict controls were removed after 1948. By the early 1950s, writers had earned the right to use any method and to experiment.
      • Manufacturers are being stung into action on both sides of the Atlantic as climbers consult their lawyers after a flirt with gravity. Of course responsible manufacturers already exercise great care with all aspects of safety and testing.
      • Only two years older than André, this bespectacled bookworm had, after a flirt with the surrealists, settled down as the editor of Gallimard's literary monthly, Nouvelle Revue Française, better known by its acronym NRF.

    2. A brief shower (of rain or snow).

      • In the course of the month, there were three flirts of snow, […]
      • ... and we still trusted to accomplish the Malnitzer Pass on the morrow. Our hopes fell to zero as during the night an ominous wind howled over the roof, and shook our casements furiously. Morning broke with chilling flirts of rain.

    3. Russula vesca, an edible woodland mushroom.

    4. To throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement

      To throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement; to fling.

      • They flirt water in each other's faces.
      • to flirt a glove, or a handkerchief
      • 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.

    5. To jeer at

      To jeer at; to mock.

      • I am ashamed; I am scorned; I am flirted.

    6. To dart about

      To dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.

      • Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal.

    7. To blurt out.

      • Chatterer flirted his tale in the saucy way he has, and his eyes twinkled.

    8. To play at courtship

      To play at courtship; to talk with teasing affection, to insinuate sexual attraction in a playful (especially conversational) way.

      • Of course, the young people flirted, for that diversion is apparently irradicable even in the "best society".

    9. To experiment, or tentatively engage, with

      To experiment, or tentatively engage, with; to become involved in passing with.

      • 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.

    10. Flirtatious.

      • He had “large dark blue eyes, wide open, very coquet, very flirt in the way he looked at you.”
      • Now Maggie knew that he was flirt and for the most part it didn't bother her when he flirted with other girls because she knew that at the end of the day she was the one that he would end up kissing.
      • You know I've been very flirt with girls.

    11. A subvariant of the Omicron variant, scientifically known as KP.2 and KP.1.1.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at flirt. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01flirt02flirting03flirtation04coquetry05flirtatious

A definitional loop anchored at flirt. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at flirt

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA