subs. (old).—1. Copulation: also THE SPORT OF VENUS (or VENEREAL SPORT). Hence as verb. = to wanton; SPORTIVE (or SPORTFUL) = lecherous; SPORTSWOMAN (or SPORTING-PIECE) = a harlot; SPORTSMAN = a MUTTON-MONGER (q.v.); SPORTSMAN’S GAP = the female pudendum; SPORTSMAN’S TOAST = ‘pointer and stubble’; &c.
1570. The Marriage of Wit and Science [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ii. 326].
| What though I be too young to show her SPORT in bed, | |
| Yet are there many in this land that at my years do wed. |
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1, 263. Let Kate be chaste, and Dian SPORTFUL. Ibid. (1597), Richard III., i. 1. I, that am not shaped for SPORTIVE tricks. Ibid. (1598), Sonnets, cxxi. Why should others’ false adulterate eyes Give salutation to my SPORTIVE blood? Ibid. (1602), Othello, ii. 1, 230. When the blood is made dull with the ACT OF SPORT. Ibid., ii. 3, 17. He hath not yet made wanton the night with her, and she is SPORT for Jove. Ibid. (1603), Measure for Measure, iii. 2. Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had some feeling of the SPORT.
c. 1600. JONSON, Fragment of Petron. Arbiter Translated.
| Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short; | |
| And done, we straight repent us of the SPORT. |
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. III. i. 2. When … he did not play the man as he should do, she fell in league with a good fellow, and whilst he sat up late at his study … she … continued at her SPORT.
1629. MASSINGER, The Picture, iii. 6.
| Ubald. This Ring was Julietta’s; a fine Piece, | |
| But very good at the SPORT. |
1673. COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft [1725], 235.
| He comes i’th’ middle of their SPORT … | |
| Took the poor lovers in the manner. |
1700. DRYDEN, The Wife of Bath, Her Tale, 127.
| The widow’s wish was oftentimes to wed; | |
| The wanton maids were all for SPORT abed. |
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, ii. 204. An old fornicatrix, who can part with her money as freely at one SPORT as she got it at another.
c. 1709. WARD, T— B——’s Last Letter. If … you have not the gift of continence … match your cock with the next fair SPORTSWOMAN you meet. Ibid. (d. 1731), Terræ Filius, v. 25. Good enough to solemnize her VENEREAL SPORTS upon a tavern chair. Ibid., 27. She is of the true colour for the SPORT OF VENUS. Ibid., Infernal Vision, III. Or Money gained admission to her Beard … What she first thought on’t, How she lik’d the SPORT? Whether it pleas’d her well, or if it hurt?
1740. RICHARDSON, Pamela, ii. 35. A poor SPORTING-PIECE for the great.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 4.
| In England, if you trust report, | |
| Whether in country, town or court, | |
| The parsons daughters make best SPORT. |
c. 1786. CAPTAIN MORRIS, The Plenipotentiary.
| As he knew in our state that the women had weight, | |
| He chose one well hung for the SPORT, sir. |
2. (turf, &c.).—A professional sportsman: a pugilist, bookmaker, jockey, &c.: also SPORTING-MAN. Whence SPORTING-HOUSE = a public-house frequented by sportsmen.
1877. New York Tribune, April. I know two or three thousand SPORTS floating now on the sea of adversity.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 50. Those were the days, my boy … every SPORT with stuff in his pockets, and lots of good clothes.
2. (colloquial).—Mischief; horseplay.
Verb. (old).—Generic for display: ‘the word … was in great vogue in … 1783 and 1784’ (GROSE); now-a-days still general, but spec. a public school and university usage. Thus TO SPORT (or BAULK) a report = to publish far and wide; TO SPORT (= drive) A GIG; TO SPORT (= wear) NEW TOGS; TO SPORT IVORY = to grin; TO SPORT (= exhibit) TEMPER; TO SPORT OAK (TIMBER, or TO SPORT IN) = to deny oneself to callers by closing an outer door: see OAK; TO SPORT AN ÆGROTAT (see ÆGROTAT); TO SPORT OFF = to do with ease; TO SPORT (= provide) A DINNER; TO SPORT LITERATURE = to write a book; TO SPORT (= spend) MONEY, ONE’S SALARY, &c.; TO SPORT (= express) AN OPINION; TO SPORT A NESCIO (see NESCIO); TO SPORT SILK (racing) = to ride a race; TO SPORT (= indulge or engage in) SMOKING, WALKING, &c. Whence (Winchester) A SPORTING ACTION = an affected manner, gesture or gait, or a betrayal of emotion. [Cf. SPORT (var. dial.) = to show, to exhibit.] SPORTINGS (Charterhouse) = clothes worn at the EXEAT (q.v.).
1794. Gentleman’s Magazine, 1085. They [at Cambridge] SPORTED an Ægrotat, and they SPORTED a new coat!
1825–7. HONE, The Every-day Book, Feb., 22. Shutting my room door, as if I was SPORTED IN, and cramming Euc.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford (1854), 29. Paul, my ben cull … I doesn’t care if I SPORTS you a glass of port.
1848. THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs, xx. Beaux … of society who SPORT a lace dickey and nothing besides.
1853. GASKELL, Cranford, i. By-and-by, Captain Brown SPORTED a bit of literature.
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxi. I took him for a flash overseer, SPORTING HIS SALARY, and I was as thick as you like with him.
1874. J. H. NEWMAN, Loss and Gain, I. v. A man… must SPORT AN OPINION when he really had none to give.
1882. Punch, lxxxii. 147, 2. Anybody can enter here who chooses to SPORT his blunt.
1885. Daily Chronicle, 28 Dec. Duly qualified by age TO SPORT SILK and satin on the public racecourse.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 246. For two days those fellows SPORTED it on that dollar.
1896. FARJEON, The Betrayal of John Fordham, III. 279. Louis had plenty of money to SPORT; e’d been backin’ winners.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 46. She SPORTED her number one gloss on her hair, And her very best blush on her cheek. Ibid., 68. That O. P. fairy … SPORTS a real diamond ring.
1900. TOD, Charterhouse, iii. The splendour of ‘Exeat’ garb defies description. It is enough to say that the Carthusian’s apparel then is as costly as his purse will buy, and that he calls it ‘SPORTINGS.’
