Cuffing Season

Cuffing season is the colder part of the year, when single people suddenly want a partner to stay in with until spring. In the Northern Hemisphere it’s usually said to run from about October to March.

What it means

To be “cuffed” is to be locked down in a relationship, a play on handcuffs. The idea behind cuffing season is that shorter days, holidays and family dinners make being single feel lonelier, so people pair up for the winter. Whether those relationships survive the first warm weekend is a running joke.

It’s light-hearted and not crude. You’ll see it on social media every fall, usually around the first cold week of October.

Examples

• “First cold night of the year. Cuffing season is officially open.”
• “He only texts me between November and February.” “That’s a cuffing season guy.”
• “Got cuffed just in time for Thanksgiving.”

Where it came from

Merriam-Webster says the romantic sense of “cuff” comes from African American English and was spread by rap and hip-hop. Its earliest print examples of “cuffing season” come from college newspapers in 2011, though its dictionary entry gives a first known use of 2009. A 2013 Fabolous song with the phrase in its title helped take it to a much wider audience.

Merriam-Webster added “cuffing season” to its dictionary in 2026.

Is it real?

Sort of. Wikipedia, citing a 2018 Refinery29 article, says Facebook data showed relationship-status changes clustering between October and February. Most of the evidence is anecdotal, though, and experts are skeptical that it’s a real seasonal pattern rather than a fun story.

Related terms

• situationship: a relationship with no label
• talking stage: the early phase before it’s official
• hard launch: going public with a new partner
• ghosting: disappearing without a word, often in March

See more terms like this in our dating slang dictionary.