The word "泡妞" is formed by combining the character "泡", which here metaphorically extends from its literal meaning of soaking or steeping to imply spending persistent, leisurely time on an activity, with the character "妞", a colloquial term for a young woman, resulting in a verb-object compound that literally means "to soak a girl" but idiomatically refers to the act of chasing or flirting with women.