Also 5 spoort, 5–6 sporte. [Aphetic form of DISPORT sb.]
I. 1. Pleasant pastime; entertainment or amusement; recreation, diversion.
c. 1440. Ipomydon, 601. Whan they had take hyr sporte in halle, The kynge to counselle gan hyr calle.
1472–5. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 156/1. Lordes,… Yomen, and other Comyners, have used the occupation of shotyng for their myrthes and sportes with Bowes of Ewe.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B. 3. To searche theyr bodyes fayre and clere, Therof they had good sporte.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 69. The Ladies had good sporte to se these auncient persones maskers.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shrew, Induct. i. 91. I haue some sport in hand, Wherein your cunning can assist me much. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., I. i. 116. But to the sport abroad, are you bound thither?
1648. Gage, West Ind., 193. The good Master thought it bad sport to see Swords at his breast.
1663. S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxii. (1687), 232. Let them see that you can rest from your labours, and yet not spend your whole time in sport and play.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 850. Aside, sequester’d from the vast resort, Antinous sate spectator of the sport.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, V. i. ¶ 28. If I come across them to-morrow, and there is any faith in an alguazil, they shall see such sport as will be no sport to them.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr. (1823), I. 42. Great sport to them was jumping in a sack.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xv. ‘I’m glad you think it good sport, brother,’ she continued.
personif. 1590. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 290. Before the Bull she pictur’d winged Loue, with his yong brother Sport.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 31. Sport that wrincled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides.
† b. Amorous dalliance or intercourse. Obs.
a. 1550[?]. Freiris Berwik, 170, in Dunbar’s Poems (1893), 291. Than in hett luve thay talkit vderis till. Thus at thair sport now will I leif thame still.
1570. in Farmer & Henley, Dict. Slang.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. i. 230. When the Blood is made dull with the Act of Sport.
1619. Moryson, Itin., III. 48. Italians love a fearefull wench, that often flies from Venus sport.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 197. When now the Nuptial time Approaches for the stately Steed to climb: Distend his Chine, and pamper him for Sport.
1700–c. 1796. in Farmer & Henley, Dict. Slang.
c. spec. Pastime afforded by the endeavor to take or kill wild animals, game or fish. Freq. with adjs. referring to the result achieved.
(a) 1653. Walton, Angler, ii. I am … glad to have so fair an entrance to this day’s sport.
1772–84. Cook’s Voy., II. I. iv. (1842), 371. Some hours after we got on board, the other party returned, having had but indifferent sport.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 130. The higher an angler goes up the Thames,… the more sport, and the greater variety of fish he will meet with.
1838. G. P. R. James, Robber, ii. Sir Walter desired me to compliment you, sir, and to wish good sport.
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 5. Smoking and discussing the probability of sport.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, iv. Pressing Glynn to come down … for the twelfth of August, promising him good sport.
transf. 1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. iii. 114. The Scots lords were grieved … that these should return without having any sport … which the Border wars afforded.
(b) 1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 141. A chosen few Alone the Sport enjoy, nor droop beneath Their pleasing Toils.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. I was thinking to see my hawks fly, and your company will make the sport more pleasant.
1860. Mayne Reid, Hunters’ Feast, xxiii. The American deer is hunted for its flesh, its hide, and ‘the sport.’
d. Participation in games or exercises, esp. those of an athletic character or pursued in the open air; such games or amusements collectively.
1863. Meliora, Oct., 195. If recreation is found, or pastime is sought in activity or change,… it is called diversion; and if we set ourselves to take part in the amusement,… it constitutes sport.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, iii. I … found he was well up in sporting, or rather turf, matters. There is very little sport in them.
2. a. In sport, in jest or joke; by way of fun or diversion; not seriously or in earnest.
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 141. And he knew sho was bod a symple thyng & ansswerd halfe in sporte & said [etc.].
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xxvi. 19. I dyd it but in sporte.
1576. Ferrers, in Gascoigne, Kenelworth Castle, G.’s Wks. 1910, II. 94. And as my love to Arthure dyd appeere, so shal’t to you in earnest and in sport.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 30. Loue no man in good earnest, nor no further in sport neyther, then [etc.].
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 369. He doubtless is in sport, and does but droll.
1829. Chapters Phys. Sci., 317. The inexhaustible variety of shades which nature, as in sport, has diffused over the surface of different bodies.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 219. I have assumed that the name was given by Gentiles, and given more or less in sport.
b. Jest, jesting; mirth or merriment.
1671. Milton, Samson, 396. Thrice I deluded her, and turn’d to sport Her importunity.
1778. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 26 Aug. Dr. Johnson … in the evening … was as lively and full of wit and sport as I have ever seen him.
1827. Carlyle, Misc. (1840), I. 18. He thinks as a humorist, he feels, imagines, acts as a humorist; Sport is the element in which his nature lives and works.
3. To make sport: a. To provide entertainment or diversion. (Chiefly with dat. of person.)
1481. Cely Papers (Camden), 74. Ȝe have a fayre hawke…. I trwste to God sche schall make yow and me ryught grehyt sporte.
a. 1500[?]. Chester Plays, I. 1. Interminglinge therewith, onely to make sporte, Some thinges not warranted by any writt.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. i. 101. This Armado is … one that makes sport To the Prince and his Booke-mates.
1592. Arden of Feversham, III. i. 85. He will murther me to make him sport.
1616. Lane, Contin. Sqr.’s T., XI. 196. Hee that makes them sport shall have their hartes.
1663. Cowley, Cutter Coleman St., II. ii. ’Twill make us excellent sport at night.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 386. To make him sport … are causes good And just, in his account, why bird and beast Should suffer torture.
1909. Mrs. H. Ward, Daphne, ii. 47. That little Yankee girl had really made good sport all the way home.
b. To engage in, furnish oneself with, or find, recreation or diversion. Chiefly with preps., as at, of, with.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 30. When the sunne shines, let foolish gnats make sport. Ibid. (1598), Merry W., III. iii. 160. If I suspect without cause, Why then make sport at me, then let me be your iest.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 28 June. How sad a thing it is, when we come to make sport of proclaiming men traitors.
1699. T. Brown, Lett. to Dr. Brown at Tunbridge, Wks. 1711, IV. 129. I … leave the Dr. and you to make what Sport you shall think fit with me.
1853. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk. (1873), II. I. i. 28. The energy of these wild warriors made sport of walled cities.
c. To show sport, to provide pastime by exhibiting spirit and courage in attack or defence.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, V. ii. Eumolpus is a good second-rate swordsman;… doubtless they will shew sport. But I have no heart for the game.
1846. G. P. R. James, Heidelb., i. This seems a wild boar of the forest. We must force him from his lair; and he will show sport, depend upon it.
II. 4. A matter affording entertainment, diversion or mirth; a jest or joke.
1450. Paston Lett., Suppl. 31. If ther myt ben purveyd any mene that it myt ben dasched,… it wer a good sport; for than he wold ben wode.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, i. (1570), A vj. Lo here is a sport, our bottell is contrary to a Cowes vtter [etc.].
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 119 b. It is a sporte and a pleasaunt syght to see, howe the Ravens wyll stryve amonges them selves for the carion.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 146. In a merrie sport … let the forfeite Be nominated for an equall pound Of your faire flesh.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Boldness (Arb.), 519. Especially, it is a Sport to see, when a Bold Fellow is out of Countenance.
1671. Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 391. On this they voted it a libel, and to be burned by the hangman. Which was done; but the sport was, the hangman burned the Lords order with it.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxix. I was the same David Deans of whom there was a sport at the Revolution.
† b. To make a sport of, to make a jest of. Obs.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. x. 23. A foole doth wickedly & maketh but a sporte of it. Ibid., 1 Esdras i. 51. Loke what God spake vnto them by his prophetes, they made but a sporte of it.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. iii. 163. He would but make a sport of it, and torment the poore Lady worse.
5. An occupation or proceeding of the nature of a pastime or diversion.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 88. Myrth and sportes maketh the soule remysse, slacke, and neglygent.
1608. Shaks., Per., V. iii. 41. Your present kindness Makes my past miseries sports.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 71. They are too commonly seeming sports, real vexations.
1780. Johnson, Lett. (1892), II. 172. The high sport was to burn the jails. This was a good rabble trick.
1790. Cowper, Let. J. Hill, 2 May. I am still at the old sport—Homer all the morning, and Homer all the evening.
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., ii. But I will settle this sport presently.
b. spec. A game, or particular form of pastime, esp. one played or carried on in the open air and involving some amount of bodily exercise.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 153. If they played smalle games,… than myght it be called a good game, a good playe, a good sporte, and a pastyme.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xii. 7. The fry of children young Their wanton sports and childish mirth did play.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VI. xxviii. 492. The Prelates have laboured to take from them these dances;… but yet they suffer them, for that part of them are but sportes of recreation.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 18 Sept. Here some of us fell to handycapp, a sport that I never knew before.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., X. 86. I … bend the Parthian Bow: As if with Sports my Sufferings I could ease.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Art of Poetry, 546. Monarchs were courted in Pierian Strain, And comic Sports reliev’d the wearied Swain.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 154. The sports of children satisfy the child.
1800. Windham, Sp. (1812), I. 338. If we, who have every source of amusement open to us, and yet follow these cruel sports, become rigid censors of the sports of the poor.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vii. I am delighted to view any sports which may be safely indulged in.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xx. 606. In such a state of things hunting might be a sport, as war might be a sport.
c. pl. A series of athletic contests engaged in or held at one time and forming a spectacle or social event. (Cf. GAME sb. 4 b.)
1594. Kyd, Cornelia, IV. i. 134. Like them that (stryuing at th’ Olympian sports To grace themselues with honor of the game) Annoynt theyr sinewes fit for wrestling.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, V. 84. That day with solemn sports I mean to grace.
1736. Gray, Statius, I. 35. Oft in Pisa’s sports, his native land Admired that arm.
1860. Chambers’s Encycl., I. 519. Athletic spoils were first witnessed at Rome 186 B.C.
1892. Isis, 27 April, 3/1. The Oxford and Cambridge Sports, which were kept at Kensington.
† d. A theatrical performance or show; a play.
1571. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 129. In sundry Tragedies, Playes, Maskes and Sportes.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 14. The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort, Who Piramus presented, in their sport, Forsooke his Scene. Ibid. (1593), Rich. II., IV. i. 290. Marke the Morall of this sport.
e. A sport of terms, wit, words, a playing upon, trifling with, or fantastical use of terms, etc.; a passage or piece of writing characterized by this. ? Obs.
1685. Stillingfl., Orig. Brit., iv. 208. I cannot think Learned Men write these things any otherwise, than as Sports of Wit which are intended for the diversion … of the Reader.
1725. W. Broome, Notes Pope’s Odyss., IX. II. 329. An Author who should introduce such a sport of words upon the stage, even in the Comedy of our days, would meet with small applause.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., II. 282. Clemens speaks of this Ogdoas, as the νοητος κοσμος: which is certainly a sport of terms.
1830. Sir J. Mackintosh, Life More, Wks. 1846, I. 423. Enabling the writer to call the whole a mere sport of wit.
6. Sport of nature, = LUSUS NATURÆ. ? Obs. (Cf. SPORTING vbl. sb. 2.)
1635. Hakewill, Apol. (ed. 3), 230. Cockles, periwinkles and oysters of solid stone:… whither they have bin shellfish and living creatures, or else the sports of nature in her works.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xxvii. 64. Spigelius, because he could not somtimes find it, did count it a sport of Nature.
1756–9. A. Butler, Lives Saints, St. Keyna (1821), X. 164. They seem either petrifactions or sports of nature in uncommon crystallizations in a mineral soil.
1773. Langhorne, Fables of Flora, ix. 9. Thus Nature with the fabled elves We rank, and these her Sports we call.
1804. Parkinson, Organic Rem., i. 31. They described their peculiar forms as the sports of nature.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 241. It is in this organ more especially, that rudimental attempts at fetal organization, the mere sports of nature, are frequently found produced without impregnation.
b. A plant (or part of a plant), animal, etc., that exhibits abnormal variation or departure from the parent stock or type in some respect, esp. in form or color; a spontaneous mutation; a new variety produced in this way.
(a) 1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 405. Selecting from accidental variations, or as they are technically termed, sports.
1870. Henfrey’s Bot., 620. What are termed ‘sports’ by gardeners, i.e. shoots differing in character from those on the other portions of the plant.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 32. The nectarine, which is usually regarded as only a sport from the peach.
(b) 1854. Poultry Chron., I. 282. The common variety [of Pea fowl] and the white, which latter is, I presume, an albino ‘sport’ from the former.
1884. E. L. Bynner, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 464/2. Dinsmore, born of bony, bilious New England stock, was yet like a ‘sport’ of some far-descending Visigoth strain.
fig. 1889. Daily News, 14 Feb., 4/8. That grotesque ‘sport’ of scientific development, Professor Tyndall.
1893. Nation, LVI. 66/1. They belong with Emily Dickinson’s verses—the ‘sports’ of literary decadence.
7. That with which one plays or sports; that which forms the sport of some thing or person.
a. That which is driven or whirled about by the wind or waves as in sport.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 181. While we … Caught in a fierie Tempest shall be hurl’d Each on his rock transfixt, the sport and prey Of racking whirlwinds.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VI. 117. But, oh! commit not thy prophetic mind To flitting leaves, the sport of ev’ry wind.
1705. Addison, Italy, 7. When the Winds in Southern Quarters rise, Ships from their Anchors torn become their Sport.
1788. Massachusetts Spy, 2 Oct., 3/3. For 24 hours she was the sport of the waves.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. viii. Blown, like a kindled rag, the sport of winds.
1887. Bowen, Æneid, I. 442. Long tossed on the waves, and a sport by the hurricanes made.
b. An object or subject of amusement, diversion, jesting, mirth, etc.; a laughing-stock, plaything, toy.
1693. Humours Town, They cannot see how they are the Sport and Laughter of ev’ry Company they come into.
1694. Southerne, Fatal Marr., II. Am I then the sport, The Game of Fortune, and her laughing Fools?
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 517. And while self-love each jealous writer rules, Contending wits become the sport of fools.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., II. v. 91. Thus foil’d, Nasica shall become the sport Of old Coranus, while he pays his court.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 330. Rhode Island was doomed to be the sport of a blind and singular policy.
1853. Maurice, Prophets & Kings, xii. 205. Those who treated the divine covenant as a fantasy and a fiction, became themselves the sports of every fantasy and fiction.
1898. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, XI. iii. You, whom Destiny … has taken in hand as a special sport.
8. One concerned with or interested in sport:
a. U.S. (See first two quots. and SPORTSMAN 2.)
1861. W. H. Russell, My Diary North & South, (1863), I. 40. Some dozen of the most over-dressed men I ever saw were pointed out to me as ‘sports’; that is, men who lived by gambling-houses and betting on races.
1874. Slang Dict., 305. Sport, an American term for a gambler or turfite—more akin to our sporting man than to our sportsman.
1892. Welsh Rev., I. 689. ‘Unhappy Mr. Collings, the victim of a thousand sports,’ I murmured, americanising my language for the nonce.
b. One who follows or participates in sport or a particular sport; a sportsman.
1873. Leland, Egypt. Sketch-Bk., 69. Such hardened sinners as old pigeon-shooting sports.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 30 June, 3/3. All modern sports will be delighted with the picture of the cosy parlour in which the ancient sports are enjoying themselves after the fatigues of the ‘First.’
1894. Astley, 50 Yrs. Life, II. 93. There was a houseful of ‘sports’ of both sexes.
c. U.S. A young man; a fellow.
1897. Flandrau, Harvard Episodes, 215. ‘I don’t suppose they’re “cheap” sports, not the way you mean.’ ‘Expensive sports, then?’
1901. D. B. Hall & Ld. A. Osborne, Sunshine & Surf, i. 4. A small club, called the University, which is chiefly kept up by the young men—the ‘sports,’ as they are called in this part of the world.
III. 9. attrib. and Comb., as sport breeder, -maker, -meeting; sport-affording, -giving, -hindering, -loving, -starved adjs.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 119. When she the weeds Troian dyd marck, and sporte breder old bed.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1622), 401. Such a sport-meeting, when rather some song of loue, or matter for ioyful melody was to be brought forth.
1611. Cotgr., Badin,… a Iugler, Tumbler, or any such sport-maker.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, I. ii. What a grief of heart is’t?… to lie and tell The clock o’th lungs, to rise sport starv’d?
1631. Mabbe, Celestina, XII. 137. O troublesome and sport-hindring doores.
1860. G. H. Kingsley, Vac. Tour, 124. Two or three birds,… affording no sport themselves, and not permitting any sport-affording bird to approach their haunts.
1895. Daily News, 21 Jan., 7/7. Five dozen … of these sport-giving fish [i.e., perch].
1897. Outing, XXIX. 343/2. Four sport-loving young women.
b. In plural, as sports-editor, outfitter; sports-holding ppl. adj.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 29 April, 7/2. So now sixteen sports-holding clubs have resolved to form a Scottish Amateur Athletic Union. Ibid. (1897), 30 April, 5/2. An employé of [a] sports outfitter.
1902. Eliz. L. Banks, Newspaper Girl, 237. The sports-editor devoted his hitherto undiscovered talents to evolving alliterative headlines.
10. Special Combs., as † sport-earnest, something that partakes of the nature of both sport and earnest; † sport-staff Sc., a quarter-staff.
1615. T. Adams, Lycanthropy, Ep. Ded. I have put up the wolfe, tho’ not hunted him, judging myselfe too weake for that sport-earnest.
1634. Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887), 172. In hambringing and taking agane to Edinburgh the sport stafes and gownes.
