adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.]
1. With the lively movements characteristic of sport; playfully.
1597. Drayton, Heroical Epistles, 68. I saw the soft ayre sportiuely to take it.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxvi. Now she moved with solemn steps,… and now tripped sportively along the path. Ibid. (1797), Italian, xvii. As they sportively threw about their sugar-plums.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 340. The females that passed in review before me, tripping sportively along.
1812. Cary, Dante, Purg., XVI. 88. Forth from his plastic hand … the soul Comes like a babe, that wantons sportively.
2. In or with sportive or jesting words; jocosely, facetiously.
1631. Heylin, St. George, 90. Therefore sportively accoasting him,… said [etc.].
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xxxix. Well, my, good Doctor, cried my father, sportively.
1780. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, June. A sportively complimentary conversation took place.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 217. In the play of his fancy [he] will sportively say Some delicate censure that pops in his way.
1842. Browning, Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli, i. Men call the Flower the Sunflower, sportively.
1871. Freeman, in W. R. W. Stephens, Life (1895), II. vii. 46. We were all much troubled to hear … about your own accident. You were able to speak sportively about [etc.].
3. In sport or jest.
1793. Miss H. M. Williams, Lett. France, II. 43. One day Lewis XV. sportively created him governor of Lucienne.
