put the moves on
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To try to charm or seduce someone
Literally: make physical or flirtatious gestures
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He's a senior citizen, so the girls are forever putting their moves on him.
‘ Say, you're much taller than they said you were,’ exclaims Bridget Fonda as a pouting nymphet putting the moves on the diminutive star.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “put the moves on” mean?
To try to charm or seduce someone Literally: make physical or flirtatious gestures
Is “put the moves on” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.