Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being sportive; disposition to mirth; playfulness; mirth; gaiety; frolicsomeness: as, the sportiveness of one's humor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the state of being sportive

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun lively high-spirited playfulness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sportive +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • At this time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of reflection, which was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came running into the recess I had chosen, with all the sportiveness of infancy.

    Chapter 16 2010

  • One other curious piece of sportiveness in his dealings with the

    Voltaire 2007

  • He must have been sportive and wanton in his inventions — yet that cruel, that savage sportiveness has saved you from the sudden violence to which he has had recourse in the violation of others, of names and families not contemptible.

    Clarissa Harlowe 2006

  • For men say that the young of all creatures cannot be quiet in their bodies or in their voices; they are always wanting to move and cry out; some leaping and skipping, and overflowing with sportiveness and delight at something, others uttering all sorts of cries.

    Laws 2006

  • At this time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of reflection, which was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came running into the recess I had chosen with all the sportiveness of infancy.

    Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004

  • At this time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of reflection, which was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came running into the recess I had chosen with all the sportiveness of infancy.

    Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004

  • And when I think that it is true — when I see that the sportiveness and kitten-like gambols of girlhood should be over, and generally are over, when a girl has given her troth, it becomes a matter of regret to me that the feminine world should be in such a hurry after matrimony.

    The Small House at Allington 2004

  • The lovely innocents proceeding to the destined sacrifice added not a little to the hilarity of the scene; they approached the plain full of sportiveness, some coursing butterflies, others culling flowers, or picking up the shining little pebbles that attracted their notice.

    The History of the Caliph Vathek 2004

  • At this time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of reflection, which was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came running into the recess I had chosen with all the sportiveness of infancy.

    Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004

  • For this disorderly, wandering march, besides the drinking part of it, was accompanied with all the sportiveness and insolence of bacchanals, as much as if the god himself had been there to countenance and lead the procession.

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

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