gamesome

[geym-suhm]

adjective

1. playful; frolicsome.

gamesome

/ ˈɡeɪmsəm /

adjective

1. full of merriment; sportive

Other Word Forms

• gamesomely adverb
• gamesomeness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of gamesome¹

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; game ¹, -some ¹

Example Sentences

The gamesome yet secretive daughter of a famous writer, she studies history, informed by a postmodern suspicion of “truth” that winks at coming narrative vexations.

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Melville observed of the humpback: “He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any other of them.”

Read more on The Guardian

But up I got again and shook my gown In gamesome gambols, quite as brisk as ever, Blithe as the lark and gay as sunny weather; Composed with creditors, at five in pound, And frolick’d on till laid beneath this ground.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

But what remedy? young men will have stirring bloodes; and the courtier-like gallants of the time will be gamesome and dangerous, as they have beene in dayes past.

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Not all its infant glory, nor its manhood's bustle, its walls, gardens and bowers,—its warm housekeeping, its gossiping burghers, its politics and its factions,—not even its prolific dames and gamesome urchins could keep it in the upper air until this our day.

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Related Words

• cheerful 
• comical 
• flirtatious 
• frisky 
• good-natured 
• impish 
• joking 
• lighthearted 
• lively 
• mischievous 
• spirited 
• sprightly 
• tongue-in-cheek 
• whimsical