Meaning
Cutting off direct communication with someone while continuing to follow their online life, watching their stories, viewing their profiles, and occasionally liking their posts. Unlike ordinary ghosting, it leaves a visible trace of lingering attention and can keep the other person guessing. Informal and negative, describing behaviour seen as confusing or quietly controlling rather than a clean break. Regional use: General English; strongest in online dating contexts.
Origin
The term was coined by writer Anna Iovine in a 2018 trend piece for the fashion-and-culture site Man Repeller, written after a man she had dated stopped replying to her messages but kept watching her Instagram stories and liking her posts; she characterised it as keeping someone close enough to see each other but far enough never to talk. The piece went viral, drawing coverage from the New York Times, The Cut, and the Guardian, which in May 2018 called orbiting that year's answer to ghosting. By the end of 2018 Oxford had shortlisted orbiting for its Word of the Year, defining it as withdrawing from direct communication while still following someone on social media. Iovine also noted the behaviour can function as a way of exerting control.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- orbit
- orbited
- orbiter
- to orbit someone
Usage Examples
- He stopped replying in March but still watches every story, which she calls orbiting.
- Orbiting hurts more than silence, her sister said, because the likes keep hope alive.
- She blocked him across all platforms to end the orbiting for good.