Meaning
Literally, relaxing at home while watching Netflix; now overwhelmingly a tongue-in-cheek euphemism for inviting someone over for sex, with streaming as the pretext. The joking sense is so dominant that the innocent meaning usually has to be signalled explicitly. Informal internet slang; as an actual proposition it presumes mutual interest and can land badly. Informal meme slang; the sexual euphemistic sense is now the default reading. Regional use: US internet origin; spread globally online.
Origin
The earliest documented use is a tweet of 21 January 2009 by NoFaceNina, La Shanda Rene Foster, about logging on to the service to relax for the night; the sense was innocent and typically solitary. As Netflix grew in the early 2010s, the brand became shorthand for staying in, and the euphemistic meaning is traced to mid-2014, spreading on Black Twitter: Know Your Meme dates the pivotal tweet, joking that the phrase no longer means what it literally says, to 8 October 2014, and a Netflix and chill starter-pack joke followed in November. Urban Dictionary defined the sexual sense in April 2015, Twitter usage passed 430,000 posts between late July and late August 2015, and Netflix's own account joked about the meme on 22 July 2015. By autumn 2015 the phrase had spawned campus festival plans, novelty merchandise, and Ariana Grande's December 2015 EP Christmas & Chill.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Netflix & chill
Usage Examples
- She said yes to Netflix and chill, then made him watch two documentaries back to back.
- Everyone knows Netflix and chill is not really about the streaming.
- Their first date was a strictly literal Netflix and chill, complete with separate blankets.