Now rare. [f. SPRITELY a.] = SPRIGHTLINESS.

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1666.  H. Stubbe, Mirac. Conformist, 2. A vivacitie and spritelinesse that is nothing common.

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1710.  F. Fuller, Pharmacop., 125. It … puts new spriteliness into the clog’d Spirits.

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1779.  Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. 1787, IV. 45. A Preface, written with great spriteliness and elegance.

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1805.  Brathwait’s Barnabees Jrnl., Introd. (1818), 45. A very pleasing effusion of spriteliness.

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1909.  Contemp. Rev., Lit. Suppl. Nov., 6. Dr. Johns’ paper on the ‘Influence of Babylonian Mythology’ will be read with an interest that is somewhat marred by the elephantine spriteliness of his style.

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