sport Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
    athletics.
  2. noun the occupation of athletes who compete for pay
  3. noun (Maine colloquial) a temporary summer resident of Maine
    summercater.
  4. noun a person known for the way she (or he) behaves when teased or defeated or subjected to trying circumstances
    • a good sport
    • a poor sport
  5. noun someone who engages in sports
    sportswoman; sportsman.
  6. noun (biology) an organism that has characteristics resulting from chromosomal alteration
    mutant; mutation; variation.
  7. noun verbal wit or mockery (often at another's expense but not to be taken seriously)
    fun; play.
    • he became a figure of fun
    • he said it in sport
  8. verb wear or display in an ostentatious or proud manner
    feature; boast.
    • she was sporting a new hat
  9. verb play boisterously
    disport; rollick; cavort; romp; run around; skylark; frisk; lark; lark about; frolic; gambol.
    • The children frolicked in the garden
    • the gamboling lambs in the meadows
    • The toddlers romped in the playroom

WordNet

Sport noun
Etymology
Abbreviated frm disport.
Definitions
  1. That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
    It is as sport a fool do mischief. prov. x. 23.
    Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight. Sir P. Sidney.
    Think it but a minute spent in sport. Shak.
  2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision.
    Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest. Shak.
  3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about in play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
    Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind. Dryden.
    Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned pasions. John Clarke.
  4. Play; idle jingle.
    An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause. Broome.
  5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing, racing, games, and the like, esp. when money is staked.
  6. (Bot. & Zoöl.) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. See Sporting plant, under Sporting.
  7. A sportsman; a gambler. Slang Prov. xxvi. 19. Syn. -- Play; game; diversion; frolic; mirth; mock; mockery; jeer.
Sport intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Sported; present participle & verbal noun Sporting
Definitions
  1. To play; to frolic; to wanton.
    [Fish], sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold. Milton.
  2. To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
  3. To trifle. "He sports with his own life." Tillotson.
  4. (Bot. & Zoöl.) To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; -- said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal. See Sport, n., 6. Darwin. Syn. -- To play; frolic; game; wanton.
Sport transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To divert; to amuse; to make merry; -- used with the reciprocal pronoun.
    Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Isa. lvii. 4.
  2. To represent by any knd of play.
    Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth. Dryden.
  3. To exhibit, or bring out, in public; to use or wear; as, to sport a new equipage. Colloq. Grose.
  4. To give utterance to in a sportive manner; to throw out in an easy and copious manner; -- with off; as, to sport off epigrams. Addison.

Webster 1913