come-hither look

A seductive or flirtatious glance, a come-on. This cliché represents one of the few surviving uses of the adverb hither, for “to this place” or “here,” which was commonplace in Shakespeare’s day (“Come hither, come hither, come hither” is in the song “Under the Greenwood Tree,” As You Like It, 2.5). The cliché dates from the first half of the 1900s and was frequently applied to film stars in romantic movies, in an era when a blunter sexual approach was frowned on.