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
If she really loved him, would she coquet with him like this—would she so pretend?
From The Hoyden by Duchess
You might almost as well coquet with a minister of the holy Gospel as with him you have selected to try your fascinations on.
From A Romantic Young Lady by Grant, Robert
But the triumph is Lady Froth, ‘a great coquet, pretender to poetry, wit, and learning,’ and one would almost as lief have seen Mrs. Mountfort in the part as the Bracegirdle’s Millamant.
From The Comedies of William Congreve Volume 1 [of 2] by Street, G. S. (George Slythe)
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
Butterflies spread their light wings and coquetted with the fragrant blossoms, and busy humming-bees buried themselves in the heart of the crimson wild rose.
From Daisy Brooks Or, A Perilous Love by Libbey, Laura Jean
I don't believe that Helen Rankine coquetted with you.
From Eleven Possible Cases by Fyles, Franklin
Youth, in its divinely suited garb of white, regarded itself with grave eyes for one breathless minute, flushed and coquetted with itself for another, and then was gone from the mirror.
From The Wishing Moon by Dutton, Louise Elizabeth
Peter glowed with rage to think all the world could penetrate this slight transparency; he burned with jealous fury as Eveline smiled, coquetted, cast glances here, there, and was stared at through a hundred opera-glasses.
From Black Diamonds by Jókai, Mór
And Freyja that morning was very frisky; she minced along sideways on her golden shoes, coquetting with her own shadow, and making little playful snaps at her 110bridle.
From The Diamond Fairy Book by Various
It appears in the tender and so infinitely sad lines which he wrote in prison, and likewise in the Confessions, a vain, exaggeratedly candid and coquetting portrait in prose.
From Paul Verlaine by Zweig, Stefan
The ostler watched her pick her way towards her master, coquetting with her head, and sidling round him in the most playful manner possible.
From The Black Moth A Romance of the XVIIIth Century by Heyer, Georgette
Then Nellie, who had been coquetting with his hopes and fears, had once again plunged him into the depths.
From Campaigning with Crook and Stories of Army Life by King, Charles
Footnote 17: A coquetting with virtue as a virtuoso, of course Gaspard means.
From Titan: A Romance Vol. II (of 2) by Jean Paul
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.
