flirting

Verb

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.
   • They flirt water in each other's faces.
2. (archaic, intransitive) To jeer at; to mock.
   • I am ashamed; I am scorned; I am flirted.1621 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Wild-Goose Chase; a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act...
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 light affection, to imply 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
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

See all 14 meanings of flirt