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A fellow who affects smartness, briskness, and vivacity; a dandy. [Slang] Fielding.

Briskness; vigor; energy; decision. [Colloq.]

Active; brisk; nimble; quick; sharp. [Archaic or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] That horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man. Dr. J. Brown.

A brisk, showy, gay man. The finest sparks and cleanest beaux. Prior.

Lively; brisk; gay. [Obs.] "Our sparkful youth." Camden.

Any business venture in involving unusual risks, with a chance for large profits.

Full of spirit or of life; earnest; vivacious; lively; brisk; nimble; gay. [Obs.] -- Spright"ful*ly, adv. [Obs.] Shak. -- Spright"ful*ness, n. [Obs.] Spoke like a sprightful gentlemen. Shak. Steeds sprightful as the light. Cowley.

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.

Specifically, a radiated mark in writing or printing; an asterisk [thus, *]; -- used as a reference to a note, or to fill a blank where something is omitted, etc.

at. Gen. xxxvii. 23. Opinions which . . . no clergyman could have avowed without imminent risk of being stripped of his gown. Macaulay.

The direct light or warmth of the sun; sunshine. Lambs that did frisk in the sun. Shak.

A shrub or tree supposed to be the tamarisk, or perhaps some kind of heath. [Obs.] He shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come. Jer. xvii. 6 (Douay version).

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

e or move in a lively or restless manner, as an impatient horse; to caper; to prance; to frisk. Kipling.

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