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To take or hold (one's self); to proceed promptly; -- used reflexively, often with ellipsis of the pronoun; as, to have after one; to have at one or at a thing, i. e., to aim at one or at a thing; to attack; to have with a companion. Shak.

Not prompt in deciding or acting; hesitating.

A rude, bold girl; a romp. H. Kingsley.

To leap; to caper; to romp noisily. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Without interval of time; without delay; promptly; instantly; at once. And Jesus . . . touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Matt. viii. 3.

Prompted by, or exhibiting, impatience; as, impatient speeches or replies. Shak.

Unpremeditated; impromptu; extempore. [R.]

That which is improvised; an impromptu.

otive or influence; impulse. "The impulsion of conscience." Clarendon. "Divine impulsion prompting." Milton.

that which incites, or has a tendency to incite, to determination or action; that which prompts to good or ill; motive; spur; as, the love of money, and the desire of promotion, are two powerful incentives to action. The greatest obstacles, the greatest terrors that come in their way, are so far from making them quit…

That which incites to action; that which rouses or prompts; incitement; motive; incentive. The noblest incitation to honest attempts. Tatler.

To compose; to write; to be author of; to dictate; to prompt. My heart is inditing a good matter. Ps. xlv. 1. Could a common grief have indited such expressions South. Hear how learned Greece her useful rules indites. Pope.

Possessed of genius, or the faculty of invention; skillful or promp to invent; having an aptitude to contrive, or to form new combinations; as, an ingenious author, mechanic. A man . . . very wise and ingenious in feats of war. Hakluyt. Thou, king, send out For torturers ingenious. Shak. The more ingenious men are, the…

Natural inward impulse; unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, whether bodily, or mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or object to be accomplished. An instinct is a propensity prior to experience, and independent of instructions. Paley. An instinct is a blind tendency t…

Of or pertaining to instinct; derived from, or prompted by, instinct; of the nature of instinct; determined by natural impulse or propensity; acting or produced without reasoning, deliberation, instruction, or experience; spontaneous. "Instinctive motion." Milton. "Instinctive dread." Cowper. With taste instinctive giv…

The quality of being instinctive, or prompted by instinct. [R.] Coleridge.

no pain or inconvenience; to harden; to habituate; to practice habitually. "To inure our prompt obedience." Milton. He . . . did inure them to speak little. Sir T. North. Inured and exercised in learning. Robynson (More's Utopia). The poor, inured to drudgery and distress. Cowper.

nse; as, the inveteracy of prejudice or of error. An inveteracy of evil habits that will prompt him to contract more. A. Tucker.

Proceeding from, or indicating, madness; expressing distraction; prompted by infatuation, fury, or extreme rashness. "Mad demeanor." Milton. Mad wars destroy in one year the works of many years of peace. Franklin. The mad promise of Cleon was fulfilled. Jowett (Thucyd.).

Actuated or prompted by a devotion to money getting or the service of Mammon. Carlyle.