jauntily
Americanadverb
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in an easy and lively manner.
Just as she was wishing he were there, he suddenly appeared on the stairway and made his way jauntily down it.
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in a smartly trim manner.
With the yellow beret perched jauntily on my head, I thought I was a true fashion plate.
Etymology
Origin of jauntily
Explanation
Doing something jauntily means you're filled with cheer, style, and self-confidence while you do it. If you're excited about showing off an especially fashionable outfit, you might walk jauntily down the hallway at school. If you've ever watched a dog show, you know the winner is inevitably a lively, handsome pup that trots jauntily around the ring. You could jauntily sing a little tune while you're taking out the trash or wear your hat tipped jauntily to one side of your head. This adverb implies a certain stylishness combined with good cheer. It comes from jaunty and its French root, gentil, "nice or pleasing."
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.
Jauntily striped cans of Away Days Brewing Co beer, made by his “good party friends” in Portland, also appear; they designed Ltd Edition Sushi’s logo, a piece of nigiri cleverly rendered in outline.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 8, 2022
Jauntily scripted by Tim Kane, Peter O'Rourke's production is a fresh mixture of the immediately humorous, the scary and the, well, ontologically challenging.
From The Guardian • Dec. 5, 2010
Jauntily, Nikita Khrushchev moved among his hard-drinking guests, smiling and shaking hands like a ward boss.
From Time Magazine Archive
Jauntily turned out in glen plaid suit and lemon shirt, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller went through one buoyant morning's routine in the State Capitol at Albany.
From Time Magazine Archive
It looks as if to challenge me they came, Jauntily marching with brass bands and banners!
From The Devil's Dictionary by Bierce, Ambrose
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.
