jilt

noun, verb — 2 senses

jilt

noun

/d͡ʒɪlt/

Etymology Contraction of jillet (“a giddy girl, a jill-flirt”).

1

A woman who readily casts aside her lover.

  • And has she been long a Jilt? has she practiſed the Trade for any Time?1683, Thomas Otway, The Soldiers Fortune:

jilt

verb

Etymology Contraction of jillet (“a giddy girl, a jill-flirt”).

1

To cast off capriciously or unfeelingly, as a lover; to deceive in love.

  • Tell a man passionately in love, that he is jilted; bring a score of witnesses of the falsehood of his mistress, it is ten to one but three kind words of hers shall invalidate all their testimonies.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 4, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 20:
  • The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
Derived terms
jiltee, jilter, jiltish

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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