Dating Terms And Trends, Defined!
How many of these terms do you know!
In case you were having trouble keeping track of all the terms… Here you go!
BLUE-STALLING When two people are dating and acting like a couple, but one person in the partnership states they’re unready for any sort of label or commitment (despite acting differently).
BREADCRUMBING Leaving ‘breadcrumbs’ of interest – random noncommittal messages and notifications that seem to lead on forever, but don’t end up taking you anywhere worthwhile Breadcrumbing is all about piquing someone’s interest without the payoff of a date or a relationship.
CASPERING Being a friendly ghost – meaning yes, you ghost, but you offer an explanation beforehand. Caspering is all about being a nice human being with common decency. A novel idea.
Catfish: Someone who uses a fake identity to lure dates online.
CLEARING Clearing season happens in January. It’s when we’re so miserable thanks to Christmas being over, the cold weather, and general seasonal dreariness, that we will hook up with anyone just so we don’t feel completely unattractive. You might have sex with an ex, give that creepy guy who you don’t really fancy a chance, or put up with truly awful sex just so you can feel human touch. It’s a tough time. Stay strong.
Cloutlighting is the combo of gaslighting and chasing social media clout. Someone will bait the person they’re dating on camera with the intention of getting them upset or angry, or making them look stupid, then share the video for everyone to laugh at.
Cuffing season: The chilly autumn and winter months when you are struck by a desire to be coupled up, or cuffed.
FIREDOORING Being firedoored is when the access is entirely on one side, so you’re always waiting for them to call or text and your efforts are shot down.
FISHING When someone will send out messages to a bunch of people to see who’d be interested in hooking up, wait to see who responds, then take their pick of who they want to get with. It’s called fishing because the fisher loads up on bait, waits for one fish to bite, then ignores all the others.
FLASHPANNER Someone who’s addicted to that warm, fuzzy, and exciting start bit of a relationship, but can’t handle the hard bits that might come after – such as having to make a firm commitment, or meeting their parents, or posting an Instagram photo with them captioned as ‘this one’.
Freckling is when someone pops into your dating life when the weather’s nice… and then vanishes once it’s a little chillier.
GATSBYING To post a video, picture or selfie to public social media purely for a love interest to see it.
GHOSTING Cutting off all communication without explanation.
GRANDE-ING Being grateful, rather than resentful, for your exes, just like Ariana Grande.
HATFISHING When someone who looks better when wearing a hat has pics on their dating profile that exclusively show them wearing hats.
KITTENFISHING Using images that are of you, but are flattering to a point that it might be deceptive. So using really old or heavily edited photos, for example. Kittenfishes can also wildly exaggerate their height, age, interests, or accomplishments.
LOVEBOMBING Showering someone with attention, gifts, gestures of affection, and promises for your future relationship, only to distract them from your not-so-great bits. In extreme cases this can form the basis for an abusive relationship.
MICROCHEATING Cheating without physically crossing the line. So stuff like emotional cheating, sexting, confiding in someone other than your partner, that sort of thing.
MOUNTAINEERING Reaching for people who might be out of your league, or reaching for the absolute top of the mountain.
OBLIGASWIPING The act of endlessly swiping on dating apps and flirt-chatting away with no legitimate intention of meeting up, so you can tell yourself you’re doing *something* to put yourself out there.
ORBITING The act of watching someone’s Instagram stories or liking their tweets or generally staying in their ‘orbit’ after a breakup.
PAPERCLIPPING When someone sporadically pops up to remind you of their existence, to prevent you from ever fully moving on.
PROWLING Going hot and cold when it comes to expressing romantic interest.
R-BOMBING Not responding to your messages but reading them all, so you see the ‘delivered’ and ‘read’ signs and feel like throwing your phone across the room.
SCROOGEING Dumping someone right before Christmas so you don’t have to buy them a present.
SHADOWNING Posing with a hot friend in all your dating app photos, knowing people will assume you’re the attractive one and will be too polite to ask.
SHAVEDUCKING Feeling deeply confused over whether you’re really attracted to a person or if they just have great facial hair.
SNEATING When you go on dates just for a free meal.
STASHING The act of hiding someone you’re dating from your friends, family, and social media.
SUBMARINING When someone ghosts, then suddenly return and acts as if nothing happened.
V-LATIONSHIPPING When someone you used to date reappears just around Valentine’s Day, usually out of loneliness and desperation.
U-TURNING Falling head over heels for someone, only to suddenly change your mind and dip.
ZOMBIEING Ghosting then returning from the dead. Different from submarining because at least a zombie will acknowledge their distance.
