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Done in jest, or for mere play; sportive. They are no sportful productions of the soil. Bentley. -- Sport"ful*ly, adv. -- Sport"ful*ness, n.

A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish. Yet Chloe, sure, was formed without a spot. Pope.

To spot with guilt or infamy; to bring reproach on; to blot; to soil; to tarnish. Of honor void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity, Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained. Milton.

Brave; bold; strong; redoubted; daring; vehement; violent. "A stalwart tiller of the soil." Prof. Wilson. Fair man be was and wise, stalworth and bold. R. of Brunne.

in any sense of the adjective. Like bristles rose my stiffening hair. Dryden. The tender soil then stiffening by degrees. Dryden. Some souls we see, Grow hard and stiffen with adversity. Dryden.

A subsoil made up of small stones or finely-broken rock; brash.

A plant from which layers are propagated by bending its branches into the soil. P. Henderson.

To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.

derlies something, as a layer of earth lying under another; specifically (Agric.), the subsoil.

To soil; to dirty; to spot; to tarnish; to stain; to darken; -- used literally and figuratively; as, to sully a sword; to sully a person's reputation. Statues sullied yet with sacrilegious smoke. Roscommon. No spots to sully the brightness of this solemnity. Atterbury.

ers in England, in consideration of a rent, and under reservation of the ownership of the soil. Bouvier. Wharton.

ry or acid calcium phosphate Ca(H2PO4)2, which is soluble and therefore available for the soil.

To work over the surface or soil of, as ground, in hunting for gold.

The grassy surface of land; that part of the soil which is filled with the roots of grass; turf. The sward was trim as any garden lawn. Tennyson. Sward pork, bacon in large fitches. [Prov. Eng.]

To breed multitudes. Not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropped with blood of Gorgon. Milton.

To make warm and fertile; -- opposed to sour; as, to dry and sweeten soils.

To soil, or change the appearance of, especially by an alternation induced by the air, or by dust, or the like; to diminish, dull, or destroy the luster of; to sully; as, to tarnish a metal; to tarnish gilding; to tarnish the purity of color. "Tarnished lace." Fuller. Used also figuratively; as, to tarnish one's honor.…

as a plant; to flourish; as, young cattle thrive in rich pastures; trees thrive in a good soil.

To soil or wear with the thumb or the fingers; to soil, or wear out, by frequent handling; also, to cover with the thumb; as, to thumb the touch-hole of a cannon. He gravely informed the enemy that all his cards had been thumbed to pieces, and begged them to let him have a few more packs. Macaulay.

Soiled by handling.