[f. SPORT sb.1]
1. A man who follows, engages in, or practises sport; esp. one who hunts or shoots wild animals or game for pleasure.
Also transf. in recent use, one who in his conduct or dealings displays the typical good qualities of a sportsman.
1706–7. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strat., I. i. Aim. A sportsman, I suppose? Bon. Yes, sir, he’s a man of pleasure; he plays at whisk and smokes his pipe eight-and-forty hours together sometimes.
1727. Gay, Begg. Op., I. ii. A good sportsman always lets the hen-partridges fly.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xi. (1782), I. 367. His nephew … presumed to dart his javelin before that of his uncle…. As a monarch and as a sportsman Odenathus was provoked.
1856. Kane, Arctic Explor., II. xxviii. 277. Our sportsmen would clamber up the cliffs and come back laden with little auks.
1894. Outing, XXIV. 476/1. Some have been true sportsmen—and as I take it, the phrase true sportsmen includes everything that is manly and gentlemanly.
transf. 1831–3. Capt. B. Hall, Fragm. Voy. & Trav., Ser. II. I. 246. This skilful sea-sportsman [a dolphin] arranged all his springs … [so] that he contrived to fall, at the end of each, just under the very spot on which the exhausted flying fish were about to drop!
b. Sportsman’s companion, knife (see quots.).
1863. Athenæum, 19 Dec., 841/3. Mr. Baskcomb exhibited an ancient nut-cracker, and a sportsman’s companion, found at Tutbury Castle.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2288/1. Sportsman’s Knife, one containing a number of tools, to be used in emergencies.
c. Electr. (See quots.)
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts & Sci., s.v., Electrical Sportsman, an amusing and ingenious instrument, to illustrate the fact that a charged electrical jar will discharge itself if the outer and inner coating approach too closely.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5598, Gas pistol, thunder house, sportsmen, and other instrument[s] for showing the proportion of frictional electricity.
2. U.S. A gambler, betting-man.
1848. in Bartlett.
