disport
Americanverb (used with object)
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disports,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disported,
past participle, past
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disporting
present participle
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to divert or amuse (oneself ).
-
to display (oneself ) in a sportive manner.
The picnickers disported themselves merrily on the beach.
verb (used without object)
-
disports,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disported,
past participle, past
-
disporting
present participle
noun
verb
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(tr) to indulge (oneself) in pleasure
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(intr) to frolic or gambol
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disportsimple
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disportssimple
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have disportedperfect
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has disportedperfect
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am disportingprogressive
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are disportingprogressive
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is disportingprogressive
-
have been disportingperfect progressive
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has been disportingperfect progressive
Past
-
disportedsimple
-
had disportedperfect
-
was disportingprogressive
-
were disportingprogressive
-
had been disportingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disport
1275–1325; (v.) Middle English disporten, desporten < Anglo-French desporter, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + porter literally, to carry ( see port 5); (noun) Middle English < Anglo-French, derivative of the v.
Explanation
Visitors to an elementary school during recess may be surprised by the way the kids disport themselves. Disport means to play in a carefree way or to amuse yourself in a lighthearted fashion. To correctly pronounce disport, accent the second syllable: "dih-SPORT." It comes from the French word desporter, which means "to carry away" or "to entertain." Think of disport as what kids do when they have so much fun playing that they get carried away, forgetting all about school until the bell rings. You might disport yourself by frolicking at the beach with friends and enjoying lively conversation.
Vocabulary lists containing disport
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 11
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
We don’t often wonder about the names of the places where we disport ourselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2022
Other than: may all would-be statesmen disport themselves with the casual larceny of a guy who knows if you don’t let the legal papers physically touch you, then they haven’t been served on you.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 9, 2019
While elsewhere in town, van loads of tourists are being carted around to view houses once inhabited by movie stars gone and long forgotten, at San Vicente Bungalows the live ones disport themselves.
From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2019
They can enjoy the hot dry weather that followed a spring of relentless rain and fog here and disport themselves in public with an apparent ease that seems singularly Italian.
From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2012
It is in the open air, under the blue vault of heaven, before the eyes of thousands, that they love to bask and disport themselves.
From Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1 of 2) by Frances Milton Trollope
The fastest man on the planet disports himself like a gentleman amateur.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 6, 2012
In the current picture he is wrecked on a cannibal island, and disports himself amidst the cannibal cancan.
From Time Magazine Archive
An inhabitant of the household disports in the portable bathtub while his mate fries a fish over the gas jet.
From Time Magazine Archive
The most telling deserter from Wilhelmina was Patti Hansen, who disports her form in Calvin Klein jeans and has just finished acting in Peter Bogdanovich's film They All Laughed.
From Time Magazine Archive
The young god who comes out of the forest is Spring; for a time he disports joyously on earth, with love for his companion, but his term of life is quickly ended.
From Creed And Deed A Series of Discourses by Felix Adler
"He certainly could be, and it would be a question of how far out he goes, how far he reaches, how disported he gets," Dean replied.
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2023
In the business of turning steel, glass and concrete into places where Americans worked and disported themselves, he and his company were known for projects not only in New York but also across the country.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 7, 2016
Even as the Puritans were striving to build an austere theocracy in New England, they were defied by a character named Thomas Morton, whose Merry Mount colonists disported themselves in free-spirited revelry.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 2014
And a smaller segment of those selfsame shiny fashion people disported itself, tipping Champagne flutes and hovering over a table of luscious cakes with the cold-eyed hunger of sharks around a diver’s cage.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2012
On this tree, over the stream, he would perch himself astride, his feet nearly in the water, and play for hours upon the tin whistle, while his troop of dogs disported in the woods around.
From World's End A Story in Three Books by Richard Jefferies
People turned out in droves, disporting themselves in outlandish costumes that made the rest of us look like normcore droogs.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2022
He showed me works he was making: visions of exploding buildings and fantastical beasts disporting themselves in temples and gardens.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 2, 2019
Havana’s festive atmosphere has long befuddled visiting American politicians fearful they could be accused of disporting themselves inappropriately in a repressive environment.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 12, 2015
“Three long steep hills just west of the town were the mecca of the skiers, with several score disporting themselves there throughout the the afternoon,” a 1937 Somerset Daily American article said.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 27, 2014
When we reached the Shore, the Tide was low, & there were Children there disporting themselves with Chum.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
