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Animated; sprightly. [Poetic] Coleridge. -- Life"some*ness, n.

Deficient in animation and courage; dejected; depressed; not sprightly. -- Low"-spir`it*ed*ness, n.

Having the qualities fabled to belong to the god Mercury; swift; active; sprightly; fickle; volatile; changeable; as, a mercurial youth; a mercurial temperament. A mercurial man Who fluttered over all things like a fan. Byron.

To be sprightly, fantastic, or capricious. [Obs.]

Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.] He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design. Bp. Burnet.

Lively; brisk; sprightly; smart. [Obs.] Shak.

Cheerful; enlivening; gay; sprightly; humorous; sportive; as, pleasant company; a pleasant fellow. From grave to light, from pleasant to serve. Dryden.

ce. One scale of reason to poise another of sensuality. Shak. To poise with solid sense a sprightly wit. Dryden.

is man. Pope. In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play, All proper to the spring, and sprightly May. Dryden.

To utter with quavers. We shall hear her quavering them . . . to some sprightly airs of the opera. Addison.

Characterized by life or liveliness; animated; sprightly; agile; brisk; ready. " A quick wit." Shak.

To make lively, active, or sprightly; to impart additional energy to; to stimulate; to make quick or rapid; to hasten; to accelerate; as, to quicken one's steps or thoughts; to quicken one's departure or speed.

The quality or state of being sprightly; liveliness; life; briskness; vigor; activity; gayety; vivacity. In dreams, observe with what a sprightliness and alacrity does she [the soul] exert herself! Addison.

See Sprightful, Sprightfully, Sprightliness, Sprightly, etc.

Sprightly; dashing. [Obs.] "Now, my spruce companions." Shak. He is so spruce that he can never be genteel. Tatler.

does when struck; to clink. As sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Cor. xiii. 1. The sprightly horse Moves to the music of his tinkling bells. Dodsley.

sense; hence, form of expression; mode of signifying; as, the turn of thought; a man of a sprightly turn in conversation. The turn of both his expressions and thoughts is unharmonious. Dryden. The Roman poets, in their description of a beautiful man, often mention the turn of his neck and arms. Addison.…

Lively; active; sprightly; vigorous. [Obs.] Even her body was made airy and vegete. Jer. Taylor.

Sprightly in temper or conduct; lively; merry; as, a vivacious poet. "Vivacious nonsense." V. Knox.

Forming brilliant images, or painting in lively colors; lively; sprightly; as, a vivid imagination. Body is a fit workhouse for sprightly, vivid faculties to exercise . . . themselves in. South.