10 Modern Dating Terms You Need To Know About

Cushioning, aka the act of starting to seek out other dating prospects while still in a relationship, is a very real thing.

Ghosting when someone you're seeing all of sudden stops talking/communicating with you, like they’ve dropped off the face of the earth.

Orbiting is when someone continues to keep tabs on another, even after ending their relationship.

Gaslighting is a subtle form of emotional abuse that makes victims unsure of what's real and what's not. People who have experienced gaslighting in relationships constantly second-guess events they've witnessed, conversations they've had, and things they've done because their abuser tells them a different story.

Micro-cheating is a series of seemingly small actions that indicate a person is emotionally or physically focused on someone outside their relationship.

Breadcrumbing is when a person you're with is stringing you along by showing you just enough attention so that you don’t lose interest. This may be done by them by slowing down the amount of texts, but still sending enough to keep you reeled in.

Catfishing is when someone is pretending to be someone they are not on dating sites and apps in order to seem more appealing.

The Cuffing Season, after fall and before the dead of winter, is when people are looking for someone they can spend time and snuggle with so they aren’t alone.

Love bombing is when someone overwhelms another with love, attention, and affection as a form of manipulation. These narcissists make their victims feel as though they are their everything, and no one else matters.

Paperclipping is when someone you used to date, who you haven’t talked to in a while, randomly contacts you for no reason. It’s almost like ghosting, expect the person actually contacts you back after a long time.