Search the Dictionary

Forward; pert; insolent; wanton. [Obs.] Burton.

Wantonness; friskiness. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

Wanton; frisky; lustful. [Obs.] J. V. Cane.

To move gayly; to wanton; to disport. Even as the waving sedges play with wind. Shak. The setting sun Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets. Addison. All fame is foreign but of true desert, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. Pope.

Playful; wanton; sportive. [R.] R. Browning. -- Play"some*ness, n. [R.]

Consciousness of power; fullness of animal spirits; mettle; wantonness; hence, lust; sexual desire; esp., an excitement of sexual appetite in a female beast. [Obs.] Pride of India, or Pride of China. (Bot.) See Margosa. -- Pride of the desert (Zoöl.), the camel.

A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort; a gibe. Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles. Milton. He was full of joke and jest, But all his merry quips are o'er. Tennyson.

Company; herd; breed. For do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds. Shak .

To toy or act wantonly; to sport. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Wantonness. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A romp; a wanton; one given to unbecoming conduct. [Obs.] Fuller.

Like a rig or wanton. [Obs.] "Riggish and unmaidenly." Bp. Hall.

A curl; especially, a curl of hair. [Her golden tresses] in wanton ringlets waved. Milton.

Wanton or unrestrained behavior; uproar; tumult. His headstrong riot hath no curb. Shak.

Involving, or engaging in, riot; wanton; unrestrained; luxurious. The younger son . . . took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. Luke xv. 13.

Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct. [Obs.] To ruffle it out in a riotous ruff. Latimer.

t, lively, or cheerful. Your looks alter, as your subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe. Waller.

Dressed in silk. "A . . . silken wanton." Shak.

A wanton girl; a light wench. [Obs.]

Wanton; restive; freakish; volatile; changeable; fickle. "Skittish Fortune's hall." Shak. -- Skit"tish*ly, adv. -- Skit"tish*ness, n.