[f. as prec. + -ATION.]
† 1. ‘A quick, sprightly motion. A cant word among women’ (J.); in quot. attrib. Obs.–1
1737. Pope, Let. in Style of Lady, Wks. 1886, X. 262. Let me die if I do not think a muslin flounce, made very full, would give one a very agreeable Flirtation-air.
2. The action or behavior of a flirt; † flighty or giddy behavior, frivolity; the action of playing at courtship.
1718. Cibber, Non-juror, II. You know I always loved a little flirtation.
1745–6. Mrs. Delany, Lett. to Mrs. Dewes, in Life & Corr., 1 Feb., II. 418. The sobriety of my own dwelling is much pleasanter to me than all the flirtations of the world.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, I. xvii. 335. Becoming soon too busy with his play to have time for more than one flirtation, he grew indifferent to the quarrel.
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, I. vi. 107. She grew up without the most rudimentary notions of the great art of flirtation.
b. transf. and fig.
1792. Dk. Leeds, Pol. Mem. (1884), 202. The Flirtations were seriously renewed between Mr. Pitt and Ld Loughborough.
1819. Byron, Juan, I. ccv.
| Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor | |
| Commit—flirtation with the Muse of Moore. |
Hence Flirtational a., pertaining to flirtation; Flirtationless a., devoid of flirtation; having no opportunity of flirting.
1862. The Saturday Review, XIII. 22 March, 327/2. The flirtational element and its kindred infinitesimal phases.
1880. Ouida, Moths, I. vi. 182. It is a martyrdom, but they bear it heroically, knowing that without it they would be nowhere; would be yellow, pallid, wrinkled, even perhaps would be flirtationless, unenvied, unregarded, worse than dead!
