Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being sportful.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
playfulness
Etymologies
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Examples
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Among a family generally sad-hued and shrinking so conspicuous an example is quite prodigal and invites one to ponder upon the sportfulness of Nature.
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In long winter nights it was hard to tell who enjoyed sportfulness the better, the children who romped the floor, or the parents who, with lighted countenance, looked at them.
Forty Years in South China The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D.D.
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So as neither the admiration and commiseration, nor the right sportfulness, is by their mongrel tragi-comedy obtained.
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When at last, amid infinite mirth and sportfulness, it was completed, she pressed it on Wilhelms head with the greatest dignity, and shifted the posture of it more than once till it seemed to her properly adjusted.
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But, besides these gross absurdities, how all their plays be neither right tragedies nor right comedies, mingling kings and clowns, not because the matter so carrieth it, but thrust in the clown by head and shoulders to play a part in majestical matters, with neither decency nor discretion; so as neither the admiration and commiseration, nor the right sportfulness, is by their mongrel tragi-comedy obtained.
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And, though not constitutionally bellicose, I eagerly accepted his invitation on being assured that I should not be requisitioned to take part personally in such pugilistic exercises, and should observe same from a safe distance and coign of vantage, for I am sufficiently a lover of sportfulness to appreciate highly the sight of courage and science in third parties.
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In long winter nights it was hard to tell who enjoyed sportfulness the better, the children who romped the floor, or the parents who, with lighted countenance, looked at them.
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This sunny soul with her sportfulness, her grace of many gifts, with her eyes that flashed and gleamed like lightning, with her voice that was like the warble of a bird, this golden-headed gipsy, this witch, this fairy -- what was the life that lay before her?
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Among a family generally sad-hued and shrinking so conspicuous an example is quite prodigal and invites one to ponder upon the sportfulness of Nature.
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-- We see in every-day life that certain doings of princes or other men of high position who have no unfulfilled desires left have no reference to any extraneous purpose; but proceed from mere sportfulness, as, for instance, their recreations in places of amusement.
The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1
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