n. [ Abbreviated from disport. ] 1. That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement. [ 1913 Webster ]

It is as sport to a fool to do mischief. Prov. x. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

Think it but a minute spent in sport. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about in play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery. [ 1913 Webster ]

Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions. John Clarke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Play; idle jingle. [ 1913 Webster ]

An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause. Broome. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing, racing, games, and the like, esp. when money is staked. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Bot. & Zool.) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. See Sporting plant, under Sporting. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A sportsman; a gambler. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

In sport, in jest; for play or diversion. “So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport?” Prov. xxvi. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Play; game; diversion; frolic; mirth; mock; mockery; jeer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To divert; to amuse; to make merry; -- used with the reciprocal pronoun. [ 1913 Webster ]

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Isa. lvii. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To represent by any kind of play. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To exhibit, or bring out, in public; to use or wear; as, to sport a new equipage. [ Colloq. ] Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To give utterance to in a sportive manner; to throw out in an easy and copious manner; -- with off; as, to sport off epigrams. [ R. ] Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

To sport one's oak. See under Oak, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Sported; p. pr. & vb. n. Sporting. ] 1. To play; to frolic; to wanton. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Fish ], sporting with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To trifle. “He sports with his own life.” Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Bot. & Zool.) To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; -- said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal. See Sport, n., 6. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To play; frolic; game; wanton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Sportiveness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to sports; used in sports. [ R. ] “Sportal arms.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who sports; a sportsman. [ 1913 Webster ]

As this gentleman and I have been old fellow sporters, I have a friendship for him. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Full of sport; merry; frolicsome; full of jesting; indulging in mirth or play; playful; wanton; as, a sportful companion. [ 1913 Webster ]

Down he alights among the sportful herd. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Done in jest, or for mere play; sportive. [ 1913 Webster ]

They are no sportful productions of the soil. Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Sport"ful*ly, adv. -- Sport"ful*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of, pertaining to, or engaging in, sport or sports; exhibiting the character or conduct of one who, or that which, sports. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sporting book, a book containing a record of bets, gambling operations, and the like. C. Kingsley. --
Sporting house, a house frequented by sportsmen, gamblers, and the like. --
Sporting man, one who practices field sports; also, a horse racer, a pugilist, a gambler, or the like. --
Sporting plant (Bot.), a plant in which a single bud or offset suddenly assumes a new, and sometimes very different, character from that of the rest of the plant. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In sport; sportively. [ 1913 Webster ]

The question you there put, you do it, I suppose, but sportingly. Hammond. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to, engaged in, or provocative of, sport; gay; frolicsome; playful; merry. [ 1913 Webster ]

Is it I
That drive thee from the sportive court? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Sport"ive*ly, adv. -- Sport"ive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]