Micro-cheating
Etymology
A compound of micro- (small) and cheating. The term was popularized around 2017 by Australian psychologist Melanie Schilling and spread through relationship journalism.
noun · /MY-kroh CHEE-ting/
Small acts of romantic or emotional betrayal that stop short of a full affair.
What it names
It names the gray-zone behaviors — secret flirty texts, a saved dating app, lingering DMs — that breach trust without crossing into physical infidelity. It gives language to harms that "technically nothing happened" tries to wave away.
Example
Deleting her texts before I could see them felt like micro-cheating, even if they never met up.
Related idea
Distinct from emotional cheating, a deeper bond formed with someone else; micro-cheating is the smaller, often deniable, individual acts.