coquette

What it means

1. A woman who flirts or plays with people's affections.

   I was playing with him, leading him on, sending him messages of encouragement then turning away from him. I was a tease, a coquette.

   1997, Ian McEwan, Enduring Love, Vintage, published 1998, page 141

   3 more examples

   Though, I confeſs, Paris has its Charms; but to me they are like thoſe of a Coquette, gay and gavvdy; they ſerve to amuſe vvith, but a Man vvould not chuſe to be marry'd to them.

   1721, [Colley] Cibber, The Refusal; or, The Ladies Philosophy: A Comedy. […], London: […] B[arnaby Bernard] Lintot, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; and W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 2

   She was a big, sexy brunette—as Garcia said, «Something straight out of Degas,» and generally like a beautiful Parisian coquette.

   1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 11, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 3

   Knox takes us through the lives of memorable seducers and their critics, in sometimes academic and sometimes rococo prose dappled with doges, coups de foudre, rakes, bawds, coquettes, coxcombs and procuresses — with guest appearances by members of the Frankfurt School sunning themselves in La Jolla.

   2020 April 2, Alex Kuczynski, “Philanderers, Predators and Pickup Artists: A History”, in The New York Times

2. Any hummingbird in the genus Lophornis.

In a sentence

Though, I confeſs, Paris has its Charms; but to me they are like thoſe of a Coquette, gay and gavvdy; they ſerve to amuſe vvith, but a Man vvould not chuſe to be marry'd to them.

1721, [Colley] Cibber, The Refusal; or, The Ladies Philosophy: A Comedy. […], London: […] B[arnaby Bernard] Lintot, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; and W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 2

Where it comes from

1. Frenchcoquette
2. Frenchcoquette
3. Englishcoquette

Borrowed from French coquette.