Search the Dictionary

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

Animated, brisk motion; spirited rhythm; sprightliness. The movement, the lilt, and the subtle charm of the verse. F. Harrison.

The quality or state of being lively or animated; sprightliness; vivacity; animation; spirit; as, the liveliness of youth, contrasted with the gravity of age. B. Jonson.

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.

ning; to obtain with some effort or difficulty. One of those who can muster up sufficient sprightliness to engage in a game of forfeits. Hazlitt.

To annoy; to vex. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Piers Plowman. All that noyed his heavy spright. Spenser.

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.

pointed instrument; a goad; a spur, etc.; a point; a skewer. Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary. Shak. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Acts ix. 5.

To lop; to trim; to prune; to adorn. [Obs.] Chaucer. The sprigs that did about it grow He proined from the leafy arms. Chapman.

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.

A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. Gaping graves received the wandering, guilty sprite. Dryden.

See Sprightful, Sprightfully, Sprightliness, Sprightly, etc.