a. [f. SPORT sb.1 Freq. in the 17th c.; in the 19th chiefly used by Carlyle.]
1. Yielding sport, diversion or entertainment; having an element of recreation, play or frolic.
c. 1400. Beryn, 294. Othir beddis [of herbs] … ful fressh i-dight For comers to the hoost, riȝte a sportful sight.
1436. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 155. Hyt was a sportfulle sygthe, How hys darttes he did schak.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. 259. If neere unto the Eleusinian Spring, Som sport-full Jig som wanton Shepheard sing.
1611. Middleton & Dekker, Roaring Girle, D.’s Wks. 1873, III. 163. Lets away, Of all the yeare this is the sportfulst day.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 289. The Drones are a lazie and carelesse generation, delighting themselves in sportfull recreations.
1700. Rowe, Amb. Step-Moth., III. i. Where the sportful Chace had call’d us forth.
1760. Home, Siege of Aquileia, V. If from Rome thou went’st A sportful journey to the Baian shore.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, etc. 242. They tempt the reader … into pleasing and sportful fields of narration.
1830. Carlyle, Misc. Ess. (1888), III. 25. A view of man and man’s life not less cheerful, even sportful, than it is deep and calm. Ibid. (1858), Fredk. Gt., X. ii. (1872), II. 580. A young fool, bent on sportful pursuits instead of serious.
b. Devised or carried on merely in sport; not earnest or serious.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 373. How with a sportfull malice it was follow’d, May rather plucke on laughter then reuenge. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 335. Though ’t be a sportfull Combate, Yet in this triall much opinion dwels.
1651. H. More, Second Lash, in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656), 185. I shall now begin the game of my personated Enmitie, or sportfull Colluctation with him.
c. Of movements: Lively, frolicsome.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 41. This sportful dance of atoms.
1713. Guardian, No. 71. He couches and frisks about in a thousand sportful motions.
1848. Fraser’s Mag., XXXVIII. 71. The sportful leap of a trout.
8. Of persons, their minds, etc.: Having an an inclination or tendency to engage in sport or play; sportive, playful.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Edw. II., I. i. 64. Crownets of pearle about his naked armes, And in his sportfull hands an Oliue tree.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. i. 18. Oh vnbid spight, is sportfull Edward come?
1632. Massinger, Emperor of East, I. ii. There I am call’d The Squire of Dames,… And by the allowance of some sportful ladies, Honour’d with that title.
1671. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), II. 238. She not pleasing him, being not sportfull enough.
1755. Man, No. 23. 2. The powers of the imagination, and the sportful wits of men are rouzed … by … nature in the Spring.
1767. Sir W. Jones, Seven Fountains, Poems (1777), 37. But when the sportful train beheld from far The nymphs returning with the stately car.
1837. Carlyle, Germ. Rom., II. 110. They who were then sportful on the green are now serious in the church. Ibid. (1827), Misc. (1857), I. 332. With a heart at once of the most earnest and the most sportful cast.
transf. 1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., IV. xiii. Here sportfull Laughter dwells, here ever sitting, Defies all lumpish griefs, and wrinkled care.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 41. Figures … which we admire as the Work of sportful Nature.
b. Of animals, birds, fishes, etc.
1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, 6. They [i.e., monkeys] are very sportful, and giuen to imitate the actions of men like apes.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. xiii. 271. And the most sportfull fishes dare not jest with the edged-tools of this Dead-Sea.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 497. When sportful Coots run skimming o’er the Strand.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 91. The poet beholds shady groves, sportful flocks, and verdant lawns.
1768. Sir W. Jones, Solima, 96. The camels bounded o’er the flowery lawn, Like the swift ostrich, or the sportful fawn.
1862. D. Campbell, Lang., Poet., & Music Highland Clans, 145. Sportful in his proud career, he [the salmon] springs at the midges.
