What is "cuffing season"? (It starts about now)

Your single granddaughter mentions she’s been on three dates this month. Her brother says, “It’s cuffing season.” Everyone laughs. You wonder what handcuffs have to do with it.

The short answer

“Cuffing season” is the stretch from roughly October through February when single people look for a partner, at least for the colder months. “Cuffed” means tied down, in a relationship, like you’re handcuffed to someone. The season part is the joke: when the weather turns cold and the holidays loom, a lot of people suddenly want someone to stay in with.

Merriam-Webster added the term to its dictionary in 2026, which tells you how mainstream it has become.

Why fall and winter?

People who use the phrase point to a few reasons:

• The holidays. Showing up to family gatherings with a date means fewer questions about your love life. Nobody wants to explain being single over pie.
• The weather. Summer is for going out. Winter is for staying in, and staying in is nicer with company.
• Holiday parties and New Year’s Eve. Lots of events where a plus-one helps.

The joke underneath it is that some of these relationships end right around Valentine’s Day, or when spring arrives. Not all of them. Plenty of real marriages started in cuffing season.

Where it came from

The phrase has been around since the early 2010s, starting in Black American slang and spreading through social media. It shows up every fall like clockwork in memes, songs, and dating app marketing. It’s not new, but it has never stopped being used.

How it’s used

• As a forecast: “Cuffing season is coming, I need a date for the holidays.”
• As a tease: “Oh, you’re seeing someone? Cuffing season got you.”
• As a status: “Officially cuffed” means someone is now in a relationship.
• The end of it: you may hear about relationships “ending with cuffing season” in spring.

What to do with this at Thanksgiving

If a grandkid brings someone new to a holiday dinner and a sibling whispers “cuffing season,” it’s ribbing, not a prediction. Be welcoming anyway. You never know which ones stick.

And if your single grandchild is tired of being asked about their love life, now you know why they might bring a date just to stop the questions. Asking about their work or their friends instead is a kindness.

Should you use it?

Yes, playfully. “Is this a cuffing season thing or a real thing?” is a funny question to ask a grandchild who’s dating, as long as you ask it with a smile and not in front of the new person.

If a message about someone’s dating life has terms you don’t recognize, paste it into the Generational Translator. For more relationship vocabulary, see what “the ick” means and what “rizz” means.