a. and sb. [f. SPORT sb. or v. + -IVE.]
A. adj. 1. Inclined to jesting or levity; disposed to a playful lightness of thought or expression.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., I. ii. 58. I am not in a sportiue humor now: Tell me, and dally not, where is the monie?
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 260. They are nought els but cleanly coyned lyes, which some pleasant sportiue wittes haue deuised, to gull them most groselie.
1676. Glanvill, Seasonable Reflect., 31. ’Tis equally absurd to be sportive about affairs that are serious.
1778. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 26 Aug. Two little productions … full of a sportive humour.
1782. V. Knox, Ess. (1819), III. 238. With a rich and sportive fancy he combined a solid judgment.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. ii. A curious fountain carved … in one of those capricious moods of sportive invention.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 541. Three generations of serious and of sportive writers wept and laughed over the venality of the senate.
b. Characterized by lightness or levity; not earnest or serious.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 109. The younge men in their merry-running Madrigals, and sportiue Basebidding Rundelayes.
1655. Musarum Deliciæ, Title-p., Conteining severall select Pieces of sportive Wit.
1742. Gray, Spring, 42. Methinks I hear in accents low The sportive kind reply.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, II. xii. 17. In raillery the sportive jest.
1813. Hor. Smith, Horace in London, 46. Whom Echo … Shall chaunt in sportive numbers?
1826. F. Reynolds, Life & Times, II. 166. The ensuing sportive anecdotes may appear frivolous.
1882. ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 32. Of sportive love offered and returned.
2. Of the nature of, inclined to, amorous sport or wantonness. Now arch.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. i. 14. I, that am not shap’d for sportiue trickes, Nor made to court an amorous Looking-glasse. Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., cxxi. 6. For why should others false adulterat eyes Giue salutation to my sportiue blood?
1855. Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi, 6. Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar.
3. Disposed to be playful or frolicsome.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Horace, Art Poet., 150. Stuff’d menacings [fit] The angry brow, the sportive, wanton things.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, II. x. 129. The bait is in their mouths, and they are sportive; but the hook hath strook their nostrils, and they shall never escape the ruine.
a. 1721. Prior, To Madam K. P., 7. Lively the Nymphs and sportive are their Swains.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 70. Beneath the lofty stem A shoal of sportive dolphins they discern.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 417. There, Werter sees the sportive children fed.
1819. Shelley, Cyclops, 92. This sportive band of Satyrs near the caves.
1865. Alex. Smith, Summer in Skye, I. 259. He cannot be sportive for the fear that is in his heart.
transf. 1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece (1715), II. xx. 401. Then tow’rds the Wind the sportive Ashes cast Upon the Sea.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 346. So sportive is the light Shot through the boughs, it dances as they dance. Ibid., 567. The sportive wind blows wide Their flutt’ring rags.
1798. Wordsw., ‘Five years have past,’ 16. Little lines Of sportive wood run wild.
1827. Pollok, Course of Time, III. Its breath was cold, and made the sportive blood Heavy and dull and stagnant.
b. Of qualities, etc.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, III. xviii. 13. See my flocks in sportive vein Frisk it o’er the verdant plain.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, II. 450. A gaudy flag … Hung up in sportive joy by those Whose sports and joys are past.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 222. Exhibiting a kind of dance, performed with the most sportive vivacity.
4. Of or pertaining to, marked or characterized by, sport; of the nature of sport or amusement; affording or providing sport or diversion.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., I. (1721), 52. They go to Bowls, and other sportive Exercises every Sunday.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 358. He then placed them in a cage at his chamber window, to be amused by their sportive flutterings.
1810. Scott, Lady of Lake, I. xviii. The sportive toil … Had dyed her glowing hue so bright.
1839. T. Mitchell, Frogs of Aristoph., 148, note. A die (the sportive instrument of playful youth).
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, xi. 351. The Greeks made their serious pursuits, especially their religion, sportive.
b. Undertaken, given, etc., in (mere) sport.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. viii. 16. Where are now the livid scars Of sportive, nor inglorious, wars?
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xlvii. The apparition of the dead comes not on light or sportive errands.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, II. 105. Quickened by a sportive volley which the Indians rattled after him.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 400. It was now not a sportive combat, but a war to the death.
5. Produced in, or as in, sport; spec. of the nature of a sport or abnormal variation; anomalous. Now rare or Obs.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), 277. Examine, on their gowns and handkerchiefs, the sportive productions of their imagination.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 73. The mineral kingdom, with all the riches, beauties, and sportive productions it contains.
1804. Parkinson, Organic Remains, I. 24. The vis plastica, the vis formativa, and the sportive creations of nature, were terms yet in frequent use.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 458. By what means they are rendered subservient to such an infinite variety of sportive and anomalous effects.
b. Of plants, etc.: Liable to sport or vary from the true type; characterized by sporting.
(a) 1850. Beck’s Florist, 24. Duchess of Sutherland … is a feathered rosy byblœmen, rather sportive.
1868. Darwin, Anim. & Pl., I. 315. [He] was forced to reject some of his new sub-varieties, which he suspected had been produced from a cross, as incorrigibly sportive.
1892. Gardeners’ Chron., 27 Aug., 250/2. P. aculeatum, though far less sportive than P. angulare, afforded material for a fine selection.
(b) 1891. W. Allan, Dis. Skin, iv. (ed. 3), 52. It is this sportive tendency manifested by skin diseases which adds so much to the difficulty of their diagnosis.
6. Taking part in, following or interested in, sport or sports.
1893. C. G. Leland, Mem., I. 37. Uncle William was a kind-hearted ‘sportive’ man, who took Bell’s Life.
† B. sb. A thing merely amusing or diverting and not of a serious character. Obs.–1
1616. E. Bolton, Hypercritica (1722), 237. If they have seen that incomparable Earl of Surrey his English translation of Virgil’s Æneids…, [they] will bear me witness that those others were Foils and Sportives.
