coquette
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a woman who flirts
-
any hummingbird of the genus Lophornis, esp the crested Brazilian species L. magnifica
Gender
What's the difference between coquette and coquet? See -ette.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of coquette
First recorded in 1605–15; from French, feminine of coquet
Explanation
A coquette is a flirt, a girl or woman who knows how to flatter and manipulate men with her charms in order to get what she wants. Coquette sounds French, and it is, borrowed into English from French in the mid-17th century. It's the feminine diminutive form of coq, which means "cock, a male bird" — so coquette refers to a little female bird, and, in fact, it's also the name of a kind of colorful hummingbird found in Latin America. If you imagine a coquette as a flamboyant little bird flitting about and teasing the male birds, you'll have a good picture of a coquette.
Vocabulary lists containing coquette
Power Suffix: -ette
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 15
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"The Night Before Christmas" by Nikolai Gogol
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The powerful, complex female lead was a rarity in traditional music theatre, where operatic tropes were easily assimilated, such as the virginal naif, the coquette, the old shrew.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2021
This early Parisienne was an accessible figure, a scrappy coquette who loved as hard as she worked.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 19, 2019
The thumb-size short-crested coquette is found only in the forest edge along a roughly 15-mile stretch of road in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain in southern Mexico.
From National Geographic ● Apr. 18, 2018
Henry showed his first collection on Saturday night, and it was more queen mum than French coquette.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2015
She had been pretty, and had all the little vanities of a coquette; she wore bright, semi-fashionable clothes, and conspicuous hats.
From Spiritual Adventures by Symons, Arthur
Unlike Chaplin, who was ever the champion of the innocent heroine, Laurel and Hardy usually ran afoul of gold-digging coquettes or nagging wives.
From Time Magazine Archive
When the Walshes went off to Europe to meet King Albert of the Belgians, she licked Baedekers to make her lips red and practiced walking like Parisian coquettes.
From Time Magazine Archive
If these coquettes shared a single trait, it was by no means beauty but an indomitable will to succeed and the ability to overcome natural handicaps.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was the dog-in-the-manger feeling which possesses coquettes of both sexes.
From The Pearl of Orr's Island A Story of the Coast of Maine by Stowe, Harriet Beecher
I think she loved me," he mused; "surely I could not be mistaken in that; surely I have known too many coquettes in my life to be duped by one at the last!
From The Doctor's Wife by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
