/flɜːt/, /flɝt/
Origin1553, 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.
- 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”
- Someone who flirts a lot or enjoys flirting; a flirtatious person.
“'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 strai”
“Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us out of the fashionable world.”
- An act of flirting.
- 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 e”
“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 wi”
“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 ”
- dialectalA brief shower (of rain or snow).
“In the course of the month, there were three flirts of snow, […]”
“[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”
“... 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 bro”
- with-definite-articleRussula vesca, an edible woodland mushroom.
- transitiveTo 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”
- archaic, intransitiveTo jeer at; to mock.
“I am ashamed; I am scorned; I am flirted.”
“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 sens”
- intransitiveTo dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.
“Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal.”
- transitiveTo blurt out.
“Chatterer flirted his tale in the saucy way he has, and his eyes twinkled.”
- intransitiveTo 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".”
“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 patt”
- intransitiveTo experiment, or tentatively engage, with; to become involved in passing with.
“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,”
“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 eleme”
- not-comparableFlirtatious.
“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.”
- A subvariant of the Omicron variant, scientifically known as KP.2 and KP.1.1.
Formsflirts(plural) · flirts(present, singular, third-person) · flirting(participle, present) · flirted(participle, past) · flirted(past)