malapert
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of malapert
1375–1425; late Middle English: insolent < Middle French: unskillful. See mal-, pert
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.
Ha! ha!" laughed the oddity who had volunteered this malapert response to the jester's inquiry, "yonder sign-post"—pointing to the aged dame—"has lost its fingers—or rather its ears.
From Under the Rose by Frederic Stewart Isham
"Do you dare, malapert boy," exclaimed Villequier, "with that bold brow, to cross-question your sovereign?"
From Henry of Guise; (Vol. II of 3) or, The States of Blois by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
But when he came to the hills, clad in shoddy finery to visit men in honest homespun, he bore himself with a cocksure dare-deviltry and malapert condescension.
From The Tempering by Charles Neville Buck
A child's outcry, more "malapert" than the priest, called the attention of the lingerers, and before any one knew, the passion of destruction had seized like a frenzy upon the people.
From Royal Edinburgh Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets by George Reid
Some said that his chaming and chirking of the paper was very ill-done of him, that he was over malapert and took too much upon him.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
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