Both Uses of
coquette
in
The Good Earth
- And as she said this she looked at the cousin out of her eyes coquettishly, although such glances, now that her eyes were no longer large and apricot-shaped in her great cheeks, were less coy than they once were, and seeing the look she gave him, the cousin laughed in uproar and cried out, "Well, and it is an old bitch still!" and he laughed again loudly.†
Chpt 31 *coquettishly = in a manner that playfully and casually arouses sexual interest of men
- Sometimes she looked at Wang Lung, fully and without coquetry as a child does, and he watched her and was proud of what he had done.†
Chpt 33coquetry = casual playfulness that arouses sexual interest
Definitions:
-
(1)
(coquette) a woman who is casually playful in a way that arouses sexual interest of men but does not imply serious flirtationCoquette is a French word that is similar to the word flirt. There are two primary differences:
- Coquette only refers to a woman whereas flirt can refer to either sex.
- To say someone is coquettish implies that she is just being playful and does not intend sexual relations with the man with whom she is interacting; whereas when a woman is described as flirting, the word does not indicate whether she is just being playful or she wants to instigate sexual relations.
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely, coquette can refer to a species of bird or to a city name.