Synonyms for flirting

Grammar : Noun

Spell : flurt

Phonetic Transcription : flɜrt

Top 10 synonyms for flirting

Other synonyms for the word flirting

Définition of flirting

Origin : 1550s, originally "to turn up one's nose, sneer at," then "to rap or flick, as with the fingers" (1560s). The noun is first attested 1540s, from the verb, with the meaning "stroke of wit." It's possible that the original word was imitative, along the lines of flip (v.), but there seems to be some influence from flit, such as in the flirt sense of "to move in short, quick flights," attested from 1580s.
Meanwhile flirt (n.) had come to mean "a pert young hussey" [Johnson] by 1560s, and Shakespeare has flirt-gill (i.e. Jill) "a woman of light or loose behavior," while flirtgig was a 17c. Yorkshire dialect word for "a giddy, flighty girl." All or any of these could have fed into the main modern verbal sense of "play at courtship" (1777), which also could have grown naturally from the earlier meaning "to flit inconstantly from object to object" (1570s), perhaps influenced by Old French fleureter "talk sweet nonsense," also "to touch a thing in passing," diminutive of fleur "flower" and metaphoric of bees skimming from flower to flower.
The noun meaning "person who flirts" is from 1732. The English word also is possibly related to East Frisian flirt "a flick or light blow," and flirtje "a giddy girl." French flirter "to flirt" is a 19c. borrowing from English. Related: Flirted; flirting.

noun coquetry

Example sentences :

But they might as well have been girls; there wasn't any flirting or nonsense of that sort, Paula.
Extract from : « The Incomplete Amorist » by E. Nesbit

Sometimes a man's unsuspicion is wiser, and Harkless knew that she was not flirting with him.
Extract from : « The Gentleman From Indiana » by Booth Tarkington

And away her ladyship tripped, flirting her perfumed fan as she went.
Extract from : « Tales And Novels, Volume 9 (of 10) » by Maria Edgeworth

And I flirting with little Yankee girls, and teaching them to swim!
Extract from : « Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. II (of II) » by Edmund Downey

She decidedly would not have liked it had it ever occurred to her that the man was flirting with her.
Extract from : « Is He Popenjoy? » by Anthony Trollope

Lady Susanna had accused her of flirting with the man, and that she had told to him.
Extract from : « Is He Popenjoy? » by Anthony Trollope

"Laughing and flirting with the new bass is not practice," returned Papa.
Extract from : « The Forbidden Trail » by Honor Willsie

You have accused me of flirting; and how am I to understand that, I who never flirted?
Extract from : « Molly Bawn » by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton

For the same reason, there was never any approach to flirting between them.
Extract from : « A Love Story Reversed » by Edward Bellamy

Your son and she were—flirting, to say the least of it, three weeks ago.
Extract from : « Adam Johnstone's Son » by F. Marion Crawford

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019