sport
[spawrt, spohrt]
- an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
- a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.
- sports, (used with a singular verb) such athletic activities collectively: Sports is important in my life.
- diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.
- jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry: What he said in sport was taken seriously.
- mockery; ridicule; derision: They made sport of him.
- an object of derision; laughingstock.
- something treated lightly or tossed about like a plaything.
- something or someone subject to the whims or vicissitudes of fate, circumstances, etc.
- a sportsman.
- Informal. a person who behaves in a sportsmanlike, fair, or admirable manner; an accommodating person: He was a sport and took his defeat well.
- Informal. a person who is interested in sports as an occasion for gambling; gambler.
- Informal. a flashy person; one who wears showy clothes, affects smart manners, pursues pleasurable pastimes, or the like; a bon vivant.
- Biology. an organism or part that shows an unusual or singular deviation from the normal or parent type; mutation.
- Obsolete. amorous dalliance.
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- of, relating to, or used in sports or a particular sport:sport fishing.
- suitable for outdoor or informal wear: sport clothes.
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- to amuse oneself with some pleasant pastime or recreation.
- to play, frolic, or gambol, as a child or an animal.
- to engage in some open-air or athletic pastime or sport.
- to trifle or treat lightly: to sport with another's emotions.
- to mock, scoff, or tease: to sport at suburban life.
- Botany. to mutate.
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- to pass (time) in amusement or sport.
- to spend or squander lightly or recklessly (often followed by away).
- Informal. to wear, display, carry, etc., especially with ostentation; show off: to sport a new mink coat.
- Archaic. to amuse (especially oneself).
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- sport one's oak. oak(def 5).
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Origin of sport
Synonyms
See more synonyms for sport on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sported
Contemporary Examples
Last year in San Diego, they sported bloody pants and angry signs.
You must now wear the same haircut & clothes you sported in junior high…forever.
My prom date, Red, sported a wiry mustache and drove a black-and-gold Camaro.
Last year, Watts, who was nominated for Best Actress for her role in The Impossible, sported a custom silver Armani gown.
Gone was the wounded look he sported during the weekend of the Super Bowl.
Historical Examples
And chief of these Sir John Hunter sported a splendid barouche.
Tales And Novels, Volume 5 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
His clothes were flashy, and he "sported" several large diamonds.
Frank Merriwell's BraveryBurt L. Standish
Nobody who sported a silver watch could belong to the "first circles."
Prudy Keeping HouseSophie May
We sported the oak now, and before long he began to recover.
The Way of All FleshSamuel Butler
Only one room, and that generally the center of disturbance, "sported the oak."
Stanford StoriesCharles K. Field
sport
- an individual or group activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game such as football, tennis, etc
- such activities considered collectively
- any particular pastime indulged in for pleasure
- the pleasure derived from a pastime, esp hunting, shooting, or fishingwe had good sport today
- playful or good-humoured jokingto say a thing in sport
- derisive mockery or the object of such mockeryto make sport of someone
- someone or something that is controlled by external influencesthe sport of fate
- informal (sometimes qualified by good, bad, etc) a person who reacts cheerfully in the face of adversity, esp a good loser
- informal a person noted for being scrupulously fair and abiding by the rules of a game
- informal a person who leads a merry existence, esp a gamblerhe's a bit of a sport
- Australian and NZ informal a form of address used esp between males
- biology
- an animal or plant that differs conspicuously in one or more aspects from other organisms of the same species, usually because of a mutation
- an anomalous characteristic of such an organism
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- (tr) informal to wear or display in an ostentatious or proud mannershe was sporting a new hat
- (intr) to skip about or frolic happily
- to amuse (oneself), esp in outdoor physical recreation
- (intr often foll by with) to dally or trifle (with)
- (tr often foll by away) rare to squander (time or money)sporting one's life away
- (intr often foll by with) archaic to make fun (of)
- (intr) biology to produce or undergo a mutation
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See also sports
Word Origin
C15 sporten, variant of disporten to disport
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sported
sport
v.
c.1400, "to take pleasure, to amuse oneself," from Anglo-French disport, Old French desport "pastime, recreation, pleasure," from desporter "to divert, amuse, please, play" (see disport). Sense of "to amuse oneself by active exercise in open air or taking part in some game" is from late 15c. Meaning "to wear" is from 1778. Related: Sported; sporting.
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sport
n.
mid-15c., "pleasant pastime," from sport (v.). Meaning "game involving physical exercise" first recorded 1520s. Original sense preserved in phrases such as in sport "in jest" (mid-15c.). Sense of "stylish man" is from 1861, American English, probably because they lived by gambling and betting on races. Meaning "good fellow" is attested from 1881 (e.g. be a sport, 1913). Sport as a familiar form of address to a man is from 1935, Australian English. The sport of kings was originally (1660s) war-making.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper