sport
UK /spɔːt/ · US /spoɹt/ noun, verb
Forms sports sporting sported
- noun (countable, uncountable) Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics. “Basketball is her favorite sport, and she also enjoys various other sports as well.”
- noun (countable) A person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship. “Jen may have won, but she was sure a poor sport; she laughed at the loser.”
- noun (countable) Somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirably good-natured manner, e.g. to being teased or to losing a game; a good sport. “You're such a sport! You never get upset when we tease you.”
- noun (archaic) Something fun, pastime; amusement.
- noun (archaic) Mockery, making fun; derision.
- noun (countable) A toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
- noun (uncountable) Gaming for money as in racing, hunting, or fishing.
- noun (biology, botany, zoology, countable) 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. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects.
- verb (intransitive) To amuse oneself, to play. “children sporting on the green”
- verb (intransitive) To mock or tease, treat lightly, toy with. “Jen sports with Bill's emotions.”
- verb (transitive) To display; to have as a notable feature. “Jen's sporting a new pair of shoes; he was sporting a new wound from the combat”
- verb (reflexive) To divert; to amuse; to make merry.
- verb (transitive) To represent by any kind of play.
- verb To practise the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
- verb 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.
- verb (transitive, archaic) To close (a door).
Synonyms
amusement avocation diversion divertisement fancy hobby kill-time pastime pursuit babber billy bredrin bruv bud buddo buddy butty chaver china chuck athletics summercater sportsman sportswoman mutant mutation variation fun play feature
Etymology
From Middle English sporten (“to divert, disport”, verb) and sport, spoort, sporte (noun), apheretic shortenings of disporten (verb) and disport, disporte (noun), from Old French desporter (“to divert, amuse, please, play; to seek amusement”), etymologically meaning "to carry away (the mind from serious matters)," from des- + porter, from Latin dis- + Latin portāre, ultimately from Latin deportāre, from de- + portāre, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to lead, pass over”)). Replaced native English laik, lake (“sport, fun, amusement”), and Middle English spile, spyl (“fun, sport, play”). More at disport. Doublet of disport and deport.
Webster’s 1913
- noun That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
- noun Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision.
- verb To play; to frolic; to wanton.
- verb To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
Etymology [Abbreviated frm disport.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sport”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details