coquet
/ˈkɒk.ɛt/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms coquets coquetting coquetted the Coquet
- noun A flirtatious female; a coquette.
- noun (obsolete) A flirtatious male.
- verb To act as a flirt or coquet.
- verb To waste time; to dally.
- verb To attempt to attract the notice, admiration, or love of; to treat with a show of tenderness or regard, with a view to deceive and disappoint; to lead on.
- proper noun A river in Northumberland, England, which flows into the North Sea at Amble; in full, the River Coquet.
Synonyms
chat up flirt dally butterfly coquette romance philander mash
Etymology
Borrowed from French coquet (“little cockerel”), from coq (“cockerel”) + -et (“masculine diminutive suffix”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To attempt to attract the notice, admiration, or love of; to treat with a show of tenderness or regard, with a view to deceive and disappoint.
- verb To trifle in love; to stimulate affection or interest; to play the coquette; to deal playfully instead of seriously; to play (with); as, we have coquetted with political crime.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “coquet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details