Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word flirt. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word flirt, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say flirt in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word flirt you have here. The definition of the word flirt will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition offlirt, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
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.
2011, Christina Jones, Never Can Say Goodbye:
'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.'
A tentative or brief, passing engagement with something.
1986, The Reader's Adviser:
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.
1988, Mountain:
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.
1990, Axel Madsen, Silk Roads: The Asian Adventures of Clara and André Malraux:
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.
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:
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.
2014, Vincent Barnett, Routledge Handbook of the History of Global Economic Thought, Routledge, →ISBN:
Receiving a chair in Stockholm 1904 – after a passing flirt with the Historical School and social reform – he became an enigmatic Walrasian.
2019, Rolf Giesen, The Nosferatu Story: The Seminal Horror Film, Its Predecessors and Its Enduring Legacy, McFarland, →ISBN, page 113:
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 ...
1842, Hazard's United States Commercial and Statistical Register, page 218:
In the course of the month, there were three flirts of snow, […]
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...:
[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.
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:
... 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.
1875, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Ultima Thule: Or, A Summer in Iceland, page 316:
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.
1881, Abba Goold Woolson, Browsing Among Books: And Other Essays, page 184:
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.
1903, George Savary Wasson, Cap'n Simeon's Store, page 218:
"[…] 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."
1917, Elizabeth Sewell Hill, Western Waters, and Other Poems, page 61:
Who cares now for hailstones skirling? The rushes bend to the eddies curling; A breath — and lo! the flag uncurling its petals blue Oh, spring will come! There's a flirt of rain and a drift of light; Oh, Spring will come!
1967, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan:
In the haze to the extreme north the Tower of Flints arose like a celluloid ruler set floating upon its end, or like a water-color drawing of a tower that has been left in the open and whose pigment has been all but washed away by a flirt of rain.
(with "the")Russula vesca, an edible woodland mushroom.
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.
She laughed […] while she flirted a soiled pocket-handkerchief at him.
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:
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.
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.
(intransitive) To dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.
2012, Lenora Worth, Sweetheart Reunion:
Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal.
1876, Louisa May Alcott, “Scarlet Stockings”, in Silver Pitchers: and Independence:
Of course, the young people flirted, for that diversion is apparently irradicable even in the "best society".
2006 April 22, “Accuser was flirting, says don”, in The Guardian:
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.
(intransitive) To experiment, or tentatively engage, with; to become involved in passing with.
2009, Kenneth Lavoie, Hold Daddy's Hand: A Father's ageless book of wisdom for his daughter:
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.
2014, David R. Topper, Idolatry and Infinity: Of Art, Math, and God, page 67:
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.
2005, Constance Crawford, Babette: Elisabeth Ullman Wills, page 57:
He had “large dark blue eyes, wide open, very coquet, very flirt in the way he looked at you.”
2010, Tasha Harper, Her Wall, page 227:
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.
2016, Samra Kiyani, Love Vs. Rituals & Provocation, page 103:
flirt, flirtation, flirting, coquetry, hanky-panky(coquettish behavior; actions designed to excite erotic attention, without intending to reciprocate such feelings; flirtatious teasing)
