flirt

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, 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”). Perhaps from Middle English gill-flurt (“a flirt”), or an alteration of flird (“a trifling", also, "to jibe, jeer at”), from Middle English flerd (“mockery, fraud, deception”), from Old English fleard (“nonsense, vanity, folly, deception”). Compare Scots flird (“to talk idly, flirt, flaunt”), Icelandic flærð (“trickiness, deceit”), Swedish flärd (“vanity, frivolity, flamboyance”). See flird.

noun

1. A sudden jerk; a quick throw or cast; a darting motion
   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.
   '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
   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
3. An act of flirting.
4. 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. 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, page 141
   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
   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, page 113
5. (dialectal) A 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
   [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
   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! 1917, Elizabeth Sewell Hill, Western Waters, and Other Poems, page 61
   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. 1967, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

verb

1. (transitive) 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
   She laughed […] while she flirted a soiled pocket-handkerchief at him. 1891, Henry James, The Pupil.djvu/155), page 141
2. (archaic, intransitive) To jeer at; to mock.
3. (intransitive) To dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.
   Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal. 2012, Lenora Worth, Sweetheart Reunion
4. (transitive) To blurt out.
   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. (intransitive) 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". 1876, Louisa May Alcott, “Scarlet Stockings”, in Silver Pitchers: and Independence
   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. 2006-04-22, “Accuser was flirting, says don”, in The Guardian
6. (intransitive) To 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, 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
   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

adj

1. Flirtatious.
   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
   You know I've been very flirt with girls. 2016, Samra Kiyani, Love Vs. Rituals & Provocation, page 103