Primary
''coquetry'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260714000159-00-⌔
coquetry - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
coquetry (countable and uncountable, plural coquetries)
- Coquettish behaviour; actions designed to excite erotic attention, without intending to reciprocate such feelings (chiefly of women towards men); flirtatious teasing.
- ✤ With a lover […] her sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavour to excite emotion, not to gratify her vanity, but her heart. This I do not allow to be coquetry, it is the artless impulse of nature […]1
- (countable) An act constituting such behaviour; an affectation of amorous interest or enticement, especially of a woman directed towards a man.
- ✤ The little coquetries, which are as natural to a gay young girl as her laughter, were all in full play, and had she gone no further no harm would have been done.2
- ✤ The mischievous pleasure of her coquetries was forgotten, and in a rush of glad confidence she felt a woman’s pride in him.3
- ✤ “Her pretty little coquetries are like the gambols of a kitten.4
Etymology
From French coquetterie.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɒkɪtɹi/, /ˈkəʊkətɹi/
- (US) IPA: /ˈkoʊkətɹi/
- Audio (US): 🔊
Printed 2026-07-14.
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Link to original Footnotes
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC: ↩
1882, Louisa M. Alcott, Kitty’s Class Day And Other Stories : ↩
1910, Geraldine Bonner, The Emigrant Trail : ↩
1913, Carolyn Wells, Patty’s Social Season : ↩
Secondary
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