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I'm looking for one word, phrase or idiom that means the following "a female (woman,girl) who did a bad thing but it was cute and amazing, something surprising but not pleasant"

  • I invited a girl to have dinner with me at a restaurant, she ordered a lot of food and eat it. I went to the man's room and when I returned she wasn't there. She only left a paper saying "Thanks, good luck".

But what she did didn't make me angry, instead I was intrigued and surprised. I don't blame her but she did a nasty thing.

What is she after that? What do I call her?

I was thinking of "a charming bitch" or "a lovely bitch", "a glorious wretch".

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  • There are some very nasty words for this, is that what you want? She a con. She 'dined and dashed.'
    – WRX
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 17:32
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    She ditched you?
    – Stephen S
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 18:32
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    Many movies play off of this premise, the game of cat & mouse (or cat & cat) between the two lead characters, where every horrible thing they do to each other just attracts them more. In fiction or poetry anything is possible. :) However I don't think there is a single word to describe this -- it's too complex a situation to merit anything less than a phrase or metaphor.
    – Andrew
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 19:10
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    For example "Her behavior was so astonishingly rude, so irreverent and carefree, that it kindled in me a profound fascination. I had to see her again."
    – Andrew
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 19:25
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    To me, this is a trait of most gamines. :-) Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 10:52

1 Answer 1

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If you're looking for a word that's less offensive, you could use vixen. It often means a woman who is devious but in an intriguing or sexy way. A dictionary defines it as:

  1. a female fox
  2. a shrewish, ill-tempered woman
  3. a sexually attractive woman

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vixen

The word "shrewish" is a more old fashioned and less offensive synonym for "bitchy."

With the other examples you gave, you could make them less offensive by using the word "devil," as "she-devil" is slang for a devious woman in English.

A charming devil. A lovely devil.

Also, in your specific example, where she left in the middle of dinner, an affectionate term would be "tease," as in:

She was a real tease.

Another word that refers to a mischievous but charming woman is gamine:

a girl with mischievous or boyish charm.

In the comments, the term "femme fatale" was brought up. In literature, the word femme fatale often refers to a woman who is seductive but leads a man to disaster or misfortune. This term would most likely be used when analyzing or discussing a story, as it is more of a literary term than the others. The term derives from French for "fatal woman."

In your case, femme fatale is probably not as appropriate because the female was mischievous, but did not lead you to any harm.

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  • Please include gamine and femme fatale in your answer. Commented Apr 15, 2017 at 14:03
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    @SovereignSun I added those terms to the answer, but I believe that "femme fatale" is not quite appropriate for this situation, because it refers to a woman who ultimately leads a man to disaster or harm. It means "fatal woman" in French. Since your situation did not involve danger or harm, you would probably be better off using a word like vixen than femme fatale. For more see the edit to my answer. Commented Apr 15, 2017 at 19:49

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