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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.

Sprightlike, or spiritlike; lively; brisk; animated; vigorous; airy; gay; as, a sprightly youth; a sprightly air; a sprightly dance. "Sprightly wit and love inspires." Dryden. The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green. Pope.

To twist about briskly with contor

Not active or brisk; dull; as, business in stagnant. That gloomy slumber of the stagnant soul. Johnson. For him a stagnant life was not worth living. Palfrey.

To cease to be brisk or active; to become dull or inactive; as, commerce stagnates; business stagnates. Ready-witted tenderness . . . never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope. Sir W. Scott.

The cessation of action, or of brisk action; the state of being dull; as, the stagnation of business.

Handy; adroit; brisk. [Obs.] Shak.

Too much; as, allegro ma non troppo, brisk but not too much so.

Brisk; vivacious; with spirit; -- a direction to perform a passage in a brisk and lively manner.

Eager; brisk; quick; active. [Obs.] "Her song . . . loud and yern." Chaucer.

Eagerly; briskly; quickly. [Obs.] Piers Plowman. My hands and my tongue go so yerne. Chaucer.