frisky
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of frisky
Explanation
The adjective frisky means playful or lively. Your frisky puppy likes to play tug-of-war with your socks, whether they're on or off your feet. Frisky is from the Middle English word frisk, which in turn was based on the Old French word frisque. In all cases, the words mean lively and merry. Frisky is often used to describe animals, but the term is also sometimes used as a mild euphemism for being playfully affectionate.
Vocabulary lists containing frisky
Dog Vocabulary: A Canine Lexicon
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"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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Unit 1, Words to Know
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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:
On Thursday’s opening mountain stage, a frisky Pogacar ripped away from an elite selection of contenders and put more than 2 ½ minutes into his nearest rival.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
High-end and low-end customers alike adored his frisky, unpredictable spirit — both on and off the runway.
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2026
The S&P 500 is up a frisky 15% so far this year.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
I love “Cocos en la Playa” — a frisky, beautiful tropical song that’s so lovely and authentic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2025
Soon as you open it up and let him out he’s frisky, happy to be free, happy to get out.
From "Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago" by LeAlan Jones
Lucy Dacus, “Best Guess” The unhurried tempo makes it only friskier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2025
In June, Simon will release his thirteenth solo album, “Stranger to Stranger,” which is friskier and funnier than its recent predecessors—his most danceable music in decades.
From The New Yorker ● May 9, 2016
Yet if Osborne seems already to have decided what the commission's conclusions should be, its members have looked friskier.
From The Guardian ● May 22, 2013
He would grow friskier, more pragmatic and less self-dramatizing during the course of his long correspondence with Kerouac, but one thing never changed: Ginsberg’s insistence on keeping the friendship alive.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2010
In friskier moods, she performed lazy pirouettes, as though to the accompaniment of my own music box, which I always brought to the roof to keep me company.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Netflix promises the documentary will feature the cats' "finest and friskiest moments," so ailurophiles — you're in for a treat.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2021
These are the ones families often pick from a litter because they stand out as the brightest and friskiest.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 6, 2021
The same goes for the servant twins, with Carson Elrod getting some of Shakespeare’s friskiest wordplay as Dromio of Syracuse, while Carter Gill absorbs a lot of blows from his masters as Dromio of Ephesus.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 2, 2018
Among the friskiest selections are “Arboretum,” by Tony Williams, and “Zoot Suite,” by Jack DeJohnette; among the more plaintive are Ed Blackwell’s “Togo” and Paul Motian’s “It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 13, 2010
He liked to pet and romp with her, to carry her on his back and caper around like the friskiest of ponies.
From Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir by Mary Catherine Crowley
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
