flirt

plural flirts

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

   with many a flirt and flutter

   1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   several little flirts and vibrations

   1711 July 7 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, June 27, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 102; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   an angry hectic in each cheek, a fierce flirt of her fan, and two or three short sniffs that betokened mischief

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

2. 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.

   July 16, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian No. 109

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   'Oooh, don't.' Lilly staggered behind the counter. 'Hangover from hell. We had a good time, I think. He's such a flirt though. He really fancied Midnight. Was sooo gutted that she was actually a straight man. Think it almost turned him celibate.'

   2011, Christina Jones, Never Can Say Goodbye

3. An act of flirting.
4. A tentative or brief, passing engagement with something.

   Receiving a chair in Stockholm 1904 – after a passing flirt with the Historical School and social reform – he became an enigmatic Walrasian.

   2014, Vincent Barnett, Routledge Handbook of the History of Global Economic Thought, Routledge, →ISBN

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   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.

   1986, The Reader's Adviser

   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.

   1988, Mountain

   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.

   1990, Axel Madsen, Silk Roads: The Asian Adventures of Clara and André Malraux

   However, the later rabbinic Law demands from a Jew who wishes to return to Judaism after a flirt with another religion, to go through giyur, conversion requirements, like any Gentile who wishes to enter the Covenant of Israel.

   2005, Murray J. Kohn, Is the Holocaust Vanishing?: A Survivor's Reflections on the Academic Waning of Memory and Jewish Identity in the Post-Auschwitz Era, University Press of America, →ISBN, page 141

   Lafayette Ron Hubbard was acquainted for some time with John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons (1914–1952), the James Dean of the occult, who was a rocket engineer and, after a brief flirt with Marxism, became interested in witchcraft and voodoo ...

   2019, Rolf Giesen, The Nosferatu Story: The Seminal Horror Film, Its Predecessors and Its Enduring Legacy, McFarland, →ISBN, page 113

5. dialectalA brief shower (of rain or snow).

   In the course of the month, there were three flirts of snow, […]

   1842, Hazard's United States Commercial and Statistical Register, page 218

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   [page 59:] A flirt of snow; after which, mild and pleasant weather, (with occasional showers) continued through the remainder of the month. [page 220:] The medium temperature of this month was 45, and it produced much mild and pleasant weather, interspersed with some rainy days, and a few flirts of snow, and frosty nights.

   1847, Charles Peirce, A Meteorological Account of the Weather in Philadelphia: From January 1, 1790, to January 1, 1847, Including Fifty-seven Years; with an Appendix...

   ... 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.

   1864, Josiah Gilbert, G. C. Churchill, The Dolomite Mountains: Excursions Through Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli in 1861, 1861, and 1863 : with a Geological Chapter, page 10

   But joy came in the morning : first a glimpse of blue sky between the flirts of rain, then a sign of the sun. The river was reported to be rapidly filling — never mind, unlucky Friday has passed by, and we may look for better things on Saturday.

   1875, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Ultima Thule: Or, A Summer in Iceland, page 316

   Long before their wonted time the robins came, — so early, indeed, that many a flirt of snow has stopped their nest-repairing, and sent them off shivering with the blues. They have arrived now in full force.

   1881, Abba Goold Woolson, Browsing Among Books: And Other Essays, page 184

   "[…] and I would n't wonder ef we did n't have a little brush of wind and quite a flirt o' snow outen her yit."

   1903, George Savary Wasson, Cap'n Simeon's Store, page 218

6. with definite articleRussula vesca, an edible woodland mushroom.

present singular third person flirts · participle present flirting · participle past flirted · past flirted

1. transitiveTo throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement; to fling.First known use 16th c.

   to flirt a glove, or a handkerchief

   5 more examples

   They flirt water in each other's faces.

   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.

   1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

   She laughed […] while she flirted a soiled pocket-handkerchief at him.

   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

   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.

   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

   It is always there in Irish life, the wrist's twist that flirts aside the decent cloth, damask or calico, and shows for a glinting instant the sharpened knife. It is not menacing at all, when you have lived your life with it. We would be lonely without our knives and our wounds.

   1988, Thomas Flanagan, novel: The Tenants of Time chapter 13

2. archaicintransitiveTo jeer at; to mock.First known use 16th–18th c.

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

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 27, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.First known use 16th c.

   Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal.

   2012, Lenora Worth, Sweetheart Reunion

4. transitiveTo blurt out.First known use 17th c.

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

   1915, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter XXI, in The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company

5. intransitiveTo play at courtship; to talk with light affection, to imply sexual attraction in a playful (especially conversational) way.First known use 18th c.

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

   1876, Louisa May Alcott, “Scarlet Stockings”, in Silver Pitchers: and Independence

   1 more example

   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.

   2006 April 22, “Accuser was flirting, says don”, in The Guardian

6. intransitiveTo 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.

   2014, David R. Topper, Idolatry and Infinity: Of Art, Math, and God, page 67

   1 more example

   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.

   2009, Kenneth Lavoie, Hold Daddy's Hand: A Father's ageless book of wisdom for his daughter

1. not comparableFlirtatious.

   You know I've been very flirt with girls.

   2016, Samra Kiyani, Love Vs. Rituals & Provocation, page 103

   2 more examples

   He had “large dark blue eyes, wide open, very coquet, very flirt in the way he looked at you.”

   2005, Constance Crawford, Babette: Elisabeth Ullman Wills, page 57

   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.

   2010, Tasha Harper, Her Wall, page 227

1. biologyA subvariant of the Omicron variant, scientifically known as KP.2 and KP.1.1.