flirt

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”). See flird.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /flɜːt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /flɝt/

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t

flirt (plural flirts)

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

     several little flirts and vibrations

   • Edgar Allan Poe

     with many a flirt and flutter

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

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

2. One who flirts (tries to court).
   • 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.'

   • Addison

     Several young flirts about town had a design to cast us out of the fashionable world.

3. An act of flirting.

flirt (third-person singular simple present flirts, present participle flirting, simple past and past participle flirted)

1. (transitive) To throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement; to fling. [from 16th c.]

   They flirt water in each other's faces.

   to flirt a glove, or a handkerchief

2. (intransitive) To jeer at; to mock. [16th-18th c.]
   • Beaumont and Fletcher

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

   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 27, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     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.

3. (intransitive) To dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions. [from 16th c.]
   • 2012, Lenora Worth, Sweetheart Reunion

     Her skirt flirted around her knees like a flower petal.

4. (transitive) To blurt out. [from 17th c.]
   • 1915, Thornton W. Burgess, The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, Ch.XXI:

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

5. (intransitive) To play at courtship; to talk with teasing affection, to insinuate sexual attraction in a playful (especially conversational) way. [from 18th c.]
   • 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, The Guardian, 21 April:

     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.

6. (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.

• (to insinuate emotional affection): See Thesaurus:flirt

• (to insinuate emotional affection): belittle

flirt (not comparable)

1. pert; wanton

• flirtatious
• flirtatiously
• flirtish
• flirtishly
• flirtsome
• flirty

• See also Thesaurus:flirt

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flirt

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of flirten
2. imperative of flirten

From English flirt.

• IPA^(key): /flœʁt/

flirt m (plural flirts)

1. An episode of (or the act of) flirting.

• flirter
• flirteur, flirteuse

• “flirt” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From English flirt.

• IPA^(key): /flʲirt/

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  (file)

flirt m inan

1. flirting

• filtr