Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lively, active, and brisk; vigorous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Active, as in leaping or running; nimble; vigorous; lively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective U.S. & Local Eng. Having great power of leaping or running; nimble; active.

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

  • adjective Having great power of leaping or running; nimble; active.

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

  • adjective moving quickly and lightly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish dialectal sprygg, brisk.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From British dialectal sprey, from Old Norse sprækr ("nimble, lively") from Proto-Germanic *sprēkiz (“lively”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pereg- (“to strew, jerk, sprinkle, scatter”). Cognate with Icelandic sprækur ("lively, spry"), Swedish dialectal sprygg ("brisk, very active, skittish"). More at spark. Related to sprack, sprig, sprug, freckle.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Useful for implying that someone is old without actually saying it.

    June 16, 2008

  • Ha, good point kewpid.

    June 16, 2008