If you’ve been hanging out for the warmer weather to hurry up and arrive, you might want to rethink your enthusiasm.

That’s because there’s a new dating trend known as ‘Freckling’, and let’s just say summer is its time to shine.

The name ‘Freckling’ was dreamed up by website AskMen , and they’ve already branded it, “the latest disappointing dating trend”, so get excited.

According toAskMen, ‘Freckling’ is basically a summer fling, except one person is left feeling disappointed when the other person disappears, usually when the weather starts to cool down.

Apparently it’s often someone you know who is doing the ‘Freckling’, too.

“Someone who, rather than coming out of nowhere and then disappearing forever, is happy to come from and then return to the periphery of your life, not staying, but not exactly leaving, either, just going dark for the colder months,” explainedAskMen.

Kind of like the freckles on your skin…

Summer lovin'... Or is it? Image: Paramount

According to the Independent , you may even find the person doing the 'Freckling' will make a return when the weather starts to warm up again, suggesting you restart things where you left off the previous summer.

Grrreat. Just what we all need in our lives.

According toAskMen, this phenomenon occurs because people are usually at their flirtiest during the warmer months. They're being more sociable, going out more often and mixing with more people.

All of that means it's a great time to hook up, and if you'reonlylooking for a hook up, chances are you'll find it during the summer months.

The bad news is (yes, there's more), there's no real way to tell if your partner is actually invested in your summer romance or if he or she is just 'Freckling' you.

AskMensuggests keeping an eye on your interactions to get some idea of where things may be headed.

"Are they an attentive texter? Do they plan one-on-one hangs with you (in years past, people called these 'dates') or do your hookups mainly stem from pairing off after a group thing? Have you met any of their closest friends and/or family? Do they acknowledge you on their social media? Do you ever do things together while totally sober?" they wrote.

And if you answered 'no', well... there's a very real chance you're being 'Freckled'.

"Freckling is indicative of modern day dating culture, where no one ever really knows where they stand and nothing is clear-cut," wrote theIndependent.

We're just going to say it - the only freckles we want next summer are the ones on our face.