[f. next + -NESS.] The character or state of being sprightly; liveliness, vivacity, animation.
1650. T. B[ayley], Worcester’s Apoph., 105. With some sprightlinesse he spake aloud.
1684. Burnet, More’s Utopia, 130. They think it a madness for a Man … to corrupt the sprightliness of his Body by Sloth.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 446, ¶ 8. The fine Woman is generally a Composition of Sprightliness and Falshood.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 635. Youth has a sprightliness and fire to boast, That in the valley of decline are lost.
1832. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. 5. I was struck with the cries of the birds we noticed: there was no sprightliness in them, nor melody.
1894. Jeaffreson, Bk. Recoll., II. 237. A lady … delightful by force of her colloquial sprightliness.
