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That which denotes or promotes pleasure or good humor; cheerfulness; gayety; merriment; especially, an agreeable playfulness in conversation; a jocose or humorous remark; badinage. The grave abound in pleasantries, the dull in repartees and points of wit. Addison. The keen observation and ironical pleasantry of a finis…

steady look, as certain hunting dogs do. He treads with caution, and he points with fear. Gay.

ained as "a little puppet," "a little doll," or "a young butterfly." Cf. Popet. [Obs.] So gay a popelote, so sweet a wench. Chaucer.

A parrot. The pye and popyngay speak they know not what. Tyndale.

Inscribed with a posy. In poised lockets bribe the fair. Gay.

A flower; a bouquet; a nosegay. "Bridegroom's posies." Spenser. We make a difference between suffering thistles to grow among us, and wearing them for posies. Swift.

ours; the people poured out of the theater. In the rude throng pour on with furious pace. Gay.

To spring or bound, as a horse in high mettle. Now rule thy prancing steed. Gay.

A gay or sportive action; a ludicrous, merry, or mischievous trick; a caper; a frolic. Spenser. The harpies . . . played their accustomed pranks. Sir W. Raleigh. His pranks have been too broad to bear with. Shak.

Of or pertaining to the primrose; of the color of a primrose; - - hence, flowery; gay. "The primrose path of dalliance." Shak.

A sweet-scented powder; pulvillio. [Written also pulville.] [Obs.] Gay.

dison. A better put on this word was made on the Beggar's Opera, which, it was said, made Gay rich, and Rich gay. Walpole.

The act of shaking, or the state of being shaken. Gayton.

A low woman; a wench; a slut. "The dread of every scolding quean." Gay.

lies me upon a country life. Addison. Strephon had long confessed his amorous pain. Which gay Corinna rallied with disdain. Gay.

r or through; as, to range the fields. Teach him to range the ditch, and force the brake. Gay.

Early; soon. [Prov. Eng.] Then why does Cuddy leave his cot so rear! Gay.

sect of our religion I lived a Pharisce. Acts xxvi. 5. The image of a brute, adorned With gay religions full of pomp and gold. Milton.

Laughing; laughable; exciting gayety; gay; merry; delightful to the view, as a landscape. In such cases the sublimity must be drawn from the other sources, with a strict caution, howewer, against anything light and riant. Burke.

A gay, lively dance for one couple, -- said to have been borrowed from Provence in France. W. Irving. Whose dancing dogs in rigadoons excel. Wolcott.