Dictionary

online date en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From online + date.

Meanings

1. A date over the Internet.
   • It’s the succeeding part I’m having a little more trouble with. A job writing obituaries and one online date is not turning my life around. 2020, Alexandra Potter, “Failing”, in Confessions of a Forty-Something, London: Macmillan, →ISBN, page 182:
   • We had arranged to see one another again on the Sunday but I never heard from him again. Well, that is until I met my now husband a few months after the online date. 2009, Rachel, “Fancy seeing you here”, in Georgia Barlow, The Cosmopolitan Guide to Online Dating: A Practical Guide for Dating Divas, London: JR Books, →ISBN, chapter 12 (True Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly), page 175:
   • One male study participant casually admitted to a “find my flaw mentality,” which mindset may be why so many online dates seem to have a strange, interview-like feel. […] One of my first online dates was with a financial executive who admitted that he’d had something like eighty online dates in the last year, but that he rarely asked a woman on a second date. 2015, L.V. Krause, “Help! I’m in a Shopping Cart and I Can’t Get Out”, in Eaten Alive: The Truth About Online Dating for Women, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Thought Catalog Books, published 2016, →ISBN, pages 41–42:
2. A person dated over the Internet.
   • I lost Nick and I don’t find Chinese men attractive. We used to make fun of this, but it’s not fun anymore. I want to go back to see my online date in London or find a former classmate to get married. 2006, Annie Wang, “Too Far Ahead of Her Time”, in The People’s Republic of Desire, New York, N.Y.: Harper, →ISBN, pages 432–433:
   • He then asked the prosecutors and the defense attorneys to stand up, and he introduced them to the court. Much to my surprise, up at the front, looking serious, there stood one of my past online dates—the handsome prosecutor. 2015, L.V. Krause, “A Dizzying Number of Dates”, in Eaten Alive: The Truth About Online Dating for Women, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Thought Catalog Books, published 2016, →ISBN, page 140:
   • When he finished the phone call I quizzed him asking him about the person he’d mentioned on the phone. It turned out that my online date was a really good friend of his and had worked with him on a Channel 4 programme. 2009, Rachel, “Fancy seeing you here”, in Georgia Barlow, The Cosmopolitan Guide to Online Dating: A Practical Guide for Dating Divas, London: JR Books, →ISBN, chapter 12 (True Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly), page 175:

Forms

Relateds

online dating

online date en · VERB · etymology 2

Etymology

Back-formation from online dating.

Meanings

1. To date over the Internet.
   • A few things to note when deciding if you’re going to online date. 2021, Lauren Windle, Notes on Love: Being Single and Dating in a Marriage Obsessed Church, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, →ISBN:
   • This also follows my previous point about making friends with men and solidifying a cohort of brothers BEFORE you attempt to online date or engage with women. 2019, HowExpert, Online Dating for Men 101: How to Find, Date, Attract, Connect, & Get into Great Relationships with Women from Online Dating, →ISBN:
   • The argument to online date was more convincing when I thought of my sister and her boyfriend and their perfect relationship. 2013, Kayli Stollak, Granny Is My Wingman, New Harvest, →ISBN, page 30:
   • So far, this book has been all about how to online date successfully. 2014, Erika Ettin, Love at First Site: Tips and Tales for Online Dating Success from a Modern-Day Matchmaker, River Grove Books, →ISBN:
   • Don’t diss online dating […] But they might overlook you because a) by suggesting you’re above this online lark you sound arrogant b) you sound way too negative and cynical c) you’re suggesting that only desperados online date and therefore you must think they’re a desperado or d) they’re so bored of reading the same old ‘I’m not used to this . . . ’ line they’ve already moved onto the next profile. 2009, Georgia Barlow, “The Write Impression”, in The Cosmopolitan Guide to Online Dating: A Practical Guide for Dating Divas, London: JR Books, →ISBN, pages 45–46:

Forms