verb
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to behave flirtatiously
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to dally or trifle
Etymology
Origin of coquet
1685–95; < French; literally, cockerel, equivalent to coq cock + -et -et
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:
A: I'm afraid I was a bit of a coquet in my youth, but now that I'm a grandmother with an 18-year-old granddaughter, I'm simplifying what I wear.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2010
Love iz a lighted kandel, and coquets fly around it, just az a miller duz, till by-and-by they dive into it, and then what a burnt coquet and miller we hav.
From The Complete Works of Josh Billings by Shaw, Henry W.
The Graces from the court did next provide Breeding, and wit, and air, and decent pride: These Venus cleans'd from ev'ry spurious grain Of nice coquet, affected, pert, and vain.
From The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 1 by Browning, William Ernst
Coquets, and prudes, ought tew be compelled to hunt in couples, so that when the coquet haz wounded the game, the prude kan nuss the dieing viktim.
From The Complete Works of Josh Billings by Shaw, Henry W.
Have I played the coquet with you, Juancho?
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 by Various
Madame coquetted with him in the most captivating and naive manner, with eyes, gestures, and a profusion of compliments, till the Colonel’s old head felt thirty years younger on his padded shoulders.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
Nodding bluebells coquetted with the tiny wave crests, while the grass along the bank waved little blades in defiance at the roar of its voice.
From Chiquita, an American Novel The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter by Tileston, Merrill
It was evident that Terence had coquetted with them merely to study their plans.
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis
An', father,"—here she coquetted with him—"you and mother are not to 'nopolize him when he comes.
From The Angel of the Gila: A Tale of Arizona by Marsland, Cora
And many of these came--very many, all who coquetted with a little bit of musical interest--yes, and many others.
From Asbe?n From the Life of a Virtuoso by Schubin, Ossip
For, young as was the younger daughter of Ambrose Powell, she was no child of simplicity, but could play at coquetting with the oldest and cleverest coquette there.
From No Quarter! by Reid, Mayne
The conjurer twists first one, then two, butterflies out of a bit of white paper, and, by means of a fan, causes them to fly and poise as if they were coquetting with July breezes.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Howe, Julia Ward
With Heine, too, who at that time was coquetting with Communism, he carried on a sprightly and not unfruitful intercourse.
From The life and teaching of Karl Marx by Beer, M.
But strange to say, in 1830 we find Francis actually coquetting with revolution.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8 "France" to "Francis Joseph I." by Various
His associate officers loitered through the listless days, coquetting with the pretty wife of the barber, smoking cigars in the shop, and listening to the petty gossip of the place.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851 by Various
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.
