A woman who is known to enjoy cocktail parties, dances, and similar social activities. Dating from the first half of the 1900s, the term sometimes, but not always, implies she is involved in sexual adventures, either for pay (as a prostitute) or not. Anthony West actually voiced the ambiguity, “He had never thought of asking himself what she was, inside of the hard shell of her disguise as the party girl who would go the limit for fun” (The Trend Is Up, 1960). A nongendered later version is party animal.