Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being gamesome; playfulness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality of being gamesome.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

gamesome +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water; clear as any mountain spring, gentlemen — that bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck, and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupper-holes.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • If you yourself can withstand three cheers at beholding these vivacious fish, then heaven help ye; the spirit of godly gamesomeness is not in ye.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • John Cotton Fletcher and his wife Mehitabel held all lightness of conduct or gamesomeness of speech as sin most devoutly to be prayed and striven against, and not only 'kept' the ten commandments with pious zeal, but, for the better serving of the Lord, invented an eleventh, which read 'Laugh not at all.'

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 2, February, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

  • When the old doctor saw me, pitying my misfortune, he desir'd to know the whole scene from my self; I freely told him of the gamesomeness of the lewd Lycas, and Tryphœna's lustful assault, that he was already well inform'd of; upon which, in a solemn oath, he swore to vindicate our cause, and that Heaven was too just to suffer so many crimes to go unpunisht.

    The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter 20-66 Petronius Arbiter

  • In the midst of all that glee and gamesomeness it was strange to see one standing joyless.

    The Children of Odin The Book of Northern Myths Padraic Colum 1926

  • Indeed, the Rondo may be said to overflow with joyousness; now the notes run at random hither and thither, now tumble about head over heels, now surge in bold arpeggios, now skip from octave to octave, now trip along in chromatics, now vent their gamesomeness in the most extravagant capers.

    Frederic Chopin as a Man and Musician Niecks, Frederick 1888

  • Then came a little stream and the horses splashed it about like children from very gamesomeness.

    The Marquis of Lossie George MacDonald 1864

  • Little thought of such disease was there, I trow, in kings 'houses, and all the fair young lords and ladies, the children of King Edward, as then was, were full of sport and gamesomeness as you see these dukes be now.

    The Caged Lion Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water; clear as any mountain spring, gentlemen -- that bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck, and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupper-holes.

    Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855

  • If you yourself can withstand three cheers at beholding these vivacious fish, then heaven help ye; the spirit of godly gamesomeness is not in ye.

    Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855

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