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minx

[mingks]
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noun
  1. a pert, impudent, or flirtatious girl.
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Origin of minx

1535–45; perhaps < Low German minsk man, impudent woman; cognate with German Mensch; see mensch
Related formsminx·ish, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for minx

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Every morning you make the thirteen signs of hell over that minx of yours!

  • "Oh, Mistress Polly, you are a minx," said that reverend gentleman.

    The Tory Maid

    Herbert Baird Stimpson

  • Ill look after the minx, and tell her some useful truth now and then, too.

  • It was then Handassah put in a word; the minx was ever ready at that.

    Rookwood

    William Harrison Ainsworth

  • That minx Joan has twisted me round her finger, and you have suffered for it.

    Pixie O'Shaughnessy

    Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

British Dictionary definitions for minx

minx

noun
  1. a bold, flirtatious, or scheming woman
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Derived Formsminxish, adjective

Word Origin

C16: of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for minx

n.

1540s, mynx "pet dog," later "a young, pert, wanton girl" [Johnson] (1590s), of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of minikin "girl, woman," from Middle Dutch minnekijn "darling, beloved," from minne "love" (see minnesinger) + -kijn, diminutive suffix. Klein's sources suggest the word is from Low German minsk "a man," also "an impudent woman," related to German Mensch (see mensch), which also has a sense in vulgar use of "wench, hussy, slut."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper