| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| sport |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  spôrt, sp rt |
| NOUN: | 1a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. b. A particular form of this activity. 2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively. 3. An active pastime; recreation. 4a. Mockery; jest: He made sport of his own looks. b. An object of mockery, jest, or play: treated our interests as sport. c. A joking mood or attitude: She made the remark in sport. 5a. One known for the manner of one's acceptance of rules, especially of a game, or of a difficult situation: a poor sport. b. Informal One who accepts rules or difficult situations well. c. Informal A pleasant companion: was a real sport during the trip. 6. Informal a. A person who lives a jolly, extravagant life. b. A gambler at sporting events. 7. Biology An organism that shows a marked change from the normal type or parent stock, typically as a result of mutation. 8. Maine See summercater. See Regional Note at summercater. 9. Obsolete Amorous dalliance; lovemaking. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: sport·ed, sport·ing, sports
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To play or frolic. 2. To joke or trifle. 3. Biology To mutate. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To display or show off: “His shoes sported elevated heels” (Truman Capote). | | ADJECTIVE: | or sports 1. Of, relating to, or appropriate for sports: sport fishing; sports equipment. 2. Designed or appropriate for outdoor or informal wear: a sport shirt. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English sporte, short for disporte, from Old French desport, pleasure, from desporter, to divert. See disport. | | OTHER FORMS: | sport ful —ADJECTIVE
sportful·ly —ADVERB
sportful·ness —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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