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A small shoot or twig of a tree or other plant; a spray; as, a sprig of laurel or of parsley.

Having sprigs.

Full of sprigs or small branches.

Spirit; mind; soul; state of mind; mood. [Obs.] "The high heroic spright." Spenser. Wondrous great grief groweth in my spright. Spenser.

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.

Destitute of life; dull; sluggish.

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.

The pintail duck; -- called also sprig, and spreet-tail. [Local, U.S.]

Grass and sprigs beaten or trampled down by a stag passing through them. Crabb.

Light of heart; vivacious; sprightly; flippant; superficial. "Merry and airy." Jer. Taylor.

A cheerful readiness, willingness, or promptitude; joyous activity; briskness; sprightliness; as, the soldiers advanced with alacrity to meet the enemy. I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have. Shak.

Gay; cheerful; sprightly. [Obs.] Bacon.

Sprightly; lively; brisk. Richardson.

An allegro movement; a quick, sprightly strain or piece.

A poem after the manner of Anacreon; a sprightly little poem in praise of love and wine.

The act of ingrafting a sprig or shoot of one tree into another, without cutting it from the parent stock; -- called, also, inarching and grafting by approach.

To set free; to release. [Archaic] Till from her hands the spright assoiled is. Spenser.

Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. The blithe sounds of festal music. Prescott. A daughter fair, So buxom, blithe, and debonair. Milton.

Cheerfulness; vivacity; liveliness; sprightliness; -- the opposite of Ant: heaviness; as, buoyancy of spirits.