COQUET, to simulate the arts of love-making, from motives of vanity, to flirt; figuratively, to trifle with anything (from Fr. coqueter, to strut like a cock). The French substantive, coquet, in the sense of "beau" was once common in English, but only the feminine form, coquette, has survived, in the sense of a woman who gratifies her vanity by using her powers of attraction frivolously. Hence "to coquet" is now more often written "to coquette." "Coquet" is still occasionally used as an adjective, but the usual form is coquettish. The crested humming-birds of the genus Lophornis are known as coquettes.