Also 6 flirte, flyrt, 7 flert, 6–8 flurt, (7 flurte). [f. next.]
† 1. A smart tap or blow, a rap, fillip. (Also fig.). Obs. exc. dial.
1577. Breton, Flourish upon Fancy (Grosart), 18/1.
| Thus euerie one would haue a flyrt, | |
| ere I could get out free. |
1621. Fletcher, Pilgrim, III. iii. One flurt at him, and then I am for the voyage.
c. 1691. Bagford Ballads (1878), II. App., 932.
| And if you rumple my Head-Gear, | |
| I’ll give you a good flurt on the Ear. |
1855. E. Waugh, Lanc. Life (1857), 29. Aw caren’t a flirt abeawt it.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., Flirt, a slight blow or fillip with the thumb and finger.
2. A sudden jerk or movement, a quick throw or cast, a darting motion. Of wind: A gust.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, vii. 119.
| Out with your blades, | |
| And hamper these jades; | |
| Have a flurt and a crash, | |
| Now play revel, dash. |
1666. Spurstowe, Spir. Chym. (1668), 116. As weak as the Grashoppers who give only a small flirt upwards, and then fall down to the Earth again.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. III. 15. There may be sometimes some small flurts of a Westerly Wind on these Coasts, but neither constant, certain or lasting.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 102, 27 June, ¶ 5. The next Motion is that of unfurling the Fan, in which are comprehended several little Flirts and Vibrations, as also gradual and deliberate Openings, with many voluntary Fallings asunder in the Fan it self, that are seldom learned under a Month’s Practice.
1789. G. White, Selborne, xl. (1853), 140. Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in breeding-time.
1830. N. S. Wheaton, Jrnl., 205. He … tosses out his arm with a flirt and a flourish.
1860. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., in Macm. Mag., II. May, 58/1. The grateful animal rushed out into the lane, and away to the green with a joyful squeal and flirt of his hind quarters in the air.
† 3. A smart stroke of wit, a joke, a jest; a gibe, jeer, scoff. Obs.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Eph. v. 4. We abhorte also to talke of foolishe friuolous fables, and vayne flirtes and iestes, whiche as in other they maye be tolerated or commended.
1613. Sir E. Hoby, Counter-snarle, 21. His next flurte is at my witt.
a. 1655. in Anecd. & Trad. (Camden), 24. She had a flurt at them presently.
a. 1713. Ellwood, Autobiog. (1714), 126. He would sometimes Joke (which was natural to him) and cast out a jesting Flurt at me: but he would rail maliciously against the Quakers.
1726. Swift, Lett., Wks. 1841, II. 584. Full of foul invectives, open reproaches, jesting flirts, and contumelious terms.
† b. Of a person: One who mocks or finds fault.
1601. W. Bas, Sword & Buckler, xlv.
| The prescise flirts of eu’ry trades-mans stall | |
| Whose busie tongues, and lothing man, defiles | |
| Our honest sort with vomited reviles. |
† 4. A fickle, inconstant person.
1577. Breton, Flourish upon Fancy (Grosart), 8/1.
| Fie on thee FANCIE, flatteryng flyrt, | |
| I hold me wel apaide: | |
| That I am got away, | |
| out of thy skyllesse Scoole. |
1689. T. Plunket, Char. Gd. Commander, 2. Nor is he one that’s Valiant at a spurt; No, no, he’s far from being such a flurt.
† 5. A woman of a giddy, flighty character; ‘a pert young hussey’ (J.).
1562. Phaer, Æneid, IX. Cc ij. Your study chief is daunse in pampryng feasts with giglet flirts.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. IV. i. (1651), 143. For why may not the mother be naught, a peevish drunken flurt, a waspish cholerick slut, a crazed peece, a fool, (as many mothers are) unsound as soon as the nurse?
1623. B. Jonson, Time Vind., Wks. (Rtldg.), 636/1.
| T’ have given the stoop, and to salute the skirts | |
| Of her, to whom all ladies else are flirts. |
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 84, 5 Jan., ¶ 3. I went home, and for four days could think and talk of nothing but miss Flavia; though my aunt told me, that she was a forward flirt, and thought herself wise before her time.
1774. W. Whitehead, Song for Ranelagh, Plays & Poems, II. 224.
| Ye belles, and ye flirts, and ye pert little things, | |
| Who trip in this frolicksome round, | |
| Pray tell me from whence this impertinence springs, | |
| The sexes at once to confound? |
† b. A woman of loose character.
1600. Breton, Pasquil’s Fool’s-cap, 22/2.
| If such a one be call’d a Foolish flirt, | |
| Twas not for nothing that she had her name, | |
| When all the world is witnesse to her shame. |
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, II. i. (1684), 17.
| A Wife is no | |
| Curse when she brings the Blessing of a good Estate with | |
| Her; but an idle Town Flurt, with a painted Face, a | |
| Rotten Reputation, and a crasie Fortune, a-dod, is the | |
| Devil and all. |
1703. Thoresby, in Ray’s Lett., 17 April (1718), 328. A Flurts, a light House-wife.
6. One who flirts, or plays at courtship. a. Said of a woman.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, I. ii. 8. She was not one of those flirts, not she, who would give pain to a person that deserved to be well-treated; and the more for the greatness of his value for her.
1782. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Odes to R. Academicians, v. Wks. 1812, I. 24.
| How could he else have caught that handsome flirt, | |
| Miss Daphne, racing through the pools and dirt? |
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., viii. (1813), 202. Her character will be fixed, and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous. A flirt too, in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite.
1880. Webb, Goethe’s Faust, III. viii.
| To bend the dainty little flirt | |
| To be conformable to your commands. |
b. Said of a man.
a. 1732. Gay, Distress’d Wife, II. Wks. (1772), 293. A flirt. One who gives himself all the airs of making love in public.
1863. Ouida, Held in Bondage, I. xii. 274. Sabretasche had an universal reputation as a most unscrupulous flirt.
c. A person to flirt with.
1779. Gentl. Mag., XLIX. July 357/2. The General [Howe] has found another Desdemona at Philadelphia, even the present Miss ———, who is now his Excellency’s flirt.
a. 1817. Jane Austen, Lady Susan, vii. (1879), 217. He is lively, and seems clever, and when I have inspired him with greater respect for me than his sister’s kind offices have implanted, he may be an agreeable flirt.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxv. General Tufto is a great flirt of mine.
7. Watch-making. ‘A lever or other device for causing sudden movement of mechanism’ (Britten).
1786. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, IV. 175. In common Chime Clocks the usual way of discharging the Chime is by a flirt, which in many instances has been known to fail.
1884. F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 124. The independent seconds hand generally beats full seconds. It is discharged by a push piece running through the pendant, which releases a flirt on the last arbor of the train.
8. Comb., as flirt-wort (see quot.).
1882. Friend, Devon Plant-n., Flirtwort, Pyrethrum Parthenium, L. A name which has apparently nearly died out, but which was common in South Devon some years ago as the designation of the Feverfew.
