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A member of the society of Friends; a Quaker. [Sportive]

; a skip; a jump, as in mirth or dancing; a prank. To cut a caper, to frolic; to make a sportive spring; to play a prank. Shak.

Greediness of appetite for flesh. [Sportive.] Pope.

plotting; to attempt to frustrate, as a stratagem, by stratagem. Every wile had proved abortive, every plot had been counterplotted. De Quinsey.

ence, dispirited; dejected; cowed. Let it make thee crestfullen; Ay, and allay this thy abortive pride. Shak.

and . . . falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. Bunyan. Cudgel play, a fight or sportive contest with cudgels. -- To cross the cudgels, to forbear or give up the contest; -- a phrase borrowed from the practice of cudgel players, who lay one cudgel over another when the contest is ended. -- To take up cudgels…

To act foolishly; to be foolish or sportive; to toy. [Scot.] Jamieson.

The quality of being droll; sportive tricks; buffoonery; droll stories; comical gestures or manners. The rich drollery of "She Stoops to Conquer." Macaulay.

To take in with the ears; to hear. [Sportive] "I eared her language." Two Noble Kinsmen.

To intoxicate in a slight degree; to render tipsy. [Colloq. & Sportive] "The elevated cavaliers sent for two tubs of merry stingo." Sir W. Scott.

Given to wit and good humor; merry; sportive; jocular; as, a facetious companion.

Pertaining to, or becoming, a feast; festal; joyous; gay; mirthful; sportive. -- Fes"tive*ly, adv. The glad circle round them yield their souls To festive mirth and wit that knows no gall. Thomson.

A failure or abortive effort. [Colloq.]

Something deposited and redeemable by a sportive fine; -- whence the game of forfeits. Country dances and forfeits shortened the rest of the day. Goldsmith.

Full of gayety and mirth; given to pranks; sportive. Old England, who takes a frolicsome brain fever once every two or three years, for the benefit of her doctors. Sir W. Scott. -- Frol"ic*some*ly, adv. -- Frol"ic*some*ness, n.

A skipping or leaping about in frolic; a hop; a sportive prank. Dryden.

Gay; sportive; playful; frolicsome; merry. Shak. Gladness of the gamesome crowd. Byron. -- Game"some*ly, adv. -- Game"some*ness, n.

Excited with merriment; manifesting sportiveness or delight; inspiring delight; livery; merry. Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay. Pope. Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed. Gray.

-- said of a hunted fox. (b) To fall in battle. -- To go to naught (Colloq.), to prove abortive, or unavailling. -- To go under. (a) To set; -- said of the sun. (b) To be known or recognized by (a name, title, etc.). (c) To be overwhelmed, submerged, or defeated; to perish; to succumb. -- To go up, to come to nothin…

e, etc. Knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the sound pine and divert his grain Tortive and errant from his course of growth. Shak.