Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Flirtation
I assisted at the birth of that most significant word flirtation, which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world, and which has since received the sanction of our most accurate Laureate in one of his comedies.
Chesterfield—The World. No. 101. (Lady Frances Shirley referred to. Poet-Laureate, Colley Cibber.)
Flirtation, attention without intention.
Max O’Rell—John Bull and his Island.
From a grave thinking mouser, she was grown
The gayest flirt that coach’d it round the town.
Pitt—Fable. The Young Man and His Cat.
Ye belles, and ye flirts, and ye pert little things,
Who trip in this frolicsome round,
Pray tell me from whence this impertinence springs,
The sexes at once to confound?
Whitehead—Song for Ranelagh.