Sport , v. t. 1. To
divert; to amuse; to make merry; -- used with the reciprocal pronoun.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
Isa. lvii.
4. 2. To represent by any knd of play.
Now
sporting on thy lyre the
loves of youth.
Dryden. 3. To exhibit, or bring out, in
public; to use or wear; as, to sport a new
equipage. [Colloq.]
Grose.
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. Addison.
To sport one's oak. See under Oak, n.
Sport , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sported;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Sporting.]
1. To play; to frolic; to wanton.
[Fish], sporting with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.
Milton.
2. To practice the diversions of the field
or the turf;
to be given
to betting, as upon races.
3. To trifle. "He sports with his own life."
Tillotson.
4. (Bot. &
Zoöl.) 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.
Syn. -- To play; frolic; game; wanton.
Sport (spōrt), n.
[Abbreviated frm disport.]
1. That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
It is as sport a fool do mischief.
prov. x. 23. Her
sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.
Sir P. Sidney. Think it but
a minute spent in sport.
Shak.
2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous
mirth; derision.
Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest.Shak.
3.
That with which one plays, or which is driven about in play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind.
Dryden. Never does man appear to
greater disadvantage than when he
is the sport of his own ungoverned
pasions.
John Clarke.
4. Play; idle jingle.
An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause.
Broome.
5. Diversion of the field,
as fowling, hunting, fishing, racing, games, and the like,
esp. when money is staked.
6. (Bot. & Zoöl.) 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.
7.
A sportsman; a gambler. [Slang]
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.
Syn. -- Play; game; diversion; frolic; mirth; mock; mockery; jeer.
Hear it pronounced