flirtation

From my psychotherapeutic activity, I know too well how much vileness and perversity are gently covered by the term flirtation nowadays in the circle of those who have learned early to conceal the traces.

Psychology and Social Sanity Hugo M��nsterberg 1889

The failing to do this is the greatest mistake of the present generation, for if girls be capable of nothing but morbid sentiment or what we term flirtation, they will naturally look to matrimony as their destiny and as a means of support -- a self-abasement from which no woman can fully recover, even under the most favorable circumstances.

How to Train Girls. 1869

The failing to do this is the greatest mistake of the present generation, for if girls be capable of nothing but morbid sentiment or what we term flirtation, they will naturally look to matrimony as their destiny and as a means of support -- a self-abasement from which no woman can fully recover, even under the most favorable circumstances.

The Woman's Advocate, Vol I, No. II. 1869

And what would a ball be without this undercurrent of what we call flirtation; in reality, this yearning for the one in the multitude.

A Heart-Song of To-day Annie Gregg Savigny

There's no reason to impugn the reputations of any of those names above, save A-Rod, who admitted what he called a flirtation with PEDs a few years ago.

The Seattle Times 2011

I suspect its some kind of puritan overcompensation for their long-term flirtation with those wicked, wicked Kennedy boys.

SurveyUSA: Hillary And Romney Way Ahead In Massachusetts 2009

Griffey's on-again, off-again flirtation with the disabled list has limited him to 26 games and two home runs.

USATODAY.com - Second-half success turns on key players 2002

If I thought you didn't care, that you were just trying to carry on the ghastly game they call flirtation up here, I wouldn't be so angry with you.

The Fifth Ace Douglas Grant

I do not affect the word flirtation, but the thing itself is not half so criminal as one would think from the animadversions visited upon it.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 69, July, 1863 Various

I do not affect the word flirtation, but the thing itself is not half so criminal as one would think from the animadversions visited upon it.

Gala-days Gail Hamilton 1864