AGILITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does agility mean? 

• AGILITY (noun)
  The noun AGILITY has 1 sense:

1. the gracefulness of a person or animal that is quick and nimble

  Familiarity information: AGILITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AGILITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The gracefulness of a person or animal that is quick and nimble

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

agility; legerity; lightness; lightsomeness; nimbleness

Hypernyms ("agility" is a kind of...):

gracefulness (beautiful carriage)

Derivation:

agile (moving quickly and lightly)

 Context examples 

The Movement Disorder Society version of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Left leg agility.

(MDS-UPDRS - Left Leg Agility, NCI Thesaurus)

The Movement Disorder Society version of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Right leg agility.

(MDS-UPDRS - Right Leg Agility, NCI Thesaurus)

Here I often used to row for my own diversion, as well as that of the queen and her ladies, who thought themselves well entertained with my skill and agility.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Buck’s marvellous quickness and agility stood him in good stead.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Thus assisted, she skipped down with much agility, and began to tie her double chin into her bonnet.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Amy and her Pole distinguished themselves by equal enthusiasm but more graceful agility, and Laurie found himself involuntarily keeping time to the rhythmic rise and fall of the white slippers as they flew by as indefatigably as if winged.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They would often spring, and bound, and leap, with prodigious agility.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He took notice of a general tradition, that Yahoos had not been always in their country; but that many ages ago, two of these brutes appeared together upon a mountain; whether produced by the heat of the sun upon corrupted mud and slime, or from the ooze and froth of the sea, was never known; that these Yahoos engendered, and their brood, in a short time, grew so numerous as to overrun and infest the whole nation; that the Houyhnhnms, to get rid of this evil, made a general hunting, and at last enclosed the whole herd; and destroying the elder, every Houyhnhnm kept two young ones in a kennel, and brought them to such a degree of tameness, as an animal, so savage by nature, can be capable of acquiring, using them for draught and carriage; that there seemed to be much truth in this tradition, and that those creatures could not be yinhniamshy (or aborigines of the land), because of the violent hatred the Houyhnhnms, as well as all other animals, bore them, which, although their evil disposition sufficiently deserved, could never have arrived at so high a degree if they had been aborigines, or else they would have long since been rooted out; that the inhabitants, taking a fancy to use the service of the Yahoos, had, very imprudently, neglected to cultivate the breed of asses, which are a comely animal, easily kept, more tame and orderly, without any offensive smell, strong enough for labour, although they yield to the other in agility of body, and if their braying be no agreeable sound, it is far preferable to the horrible howlings of the Yahoos.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Four times a year the youth of a certain district meet to show their proficiency in running and leaping, and other feats of strength and agility; where the victor is rewarded with a song in his or her praise.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He said, “he had been very seriously considering my whole story, as far as it related both to myself and my country; that he looked upon us as a sort of animals, to whose share, by what accident he could not conjecture, some small pittance of reason had fallen, whereof we made no other use, than by its assistance, to aggravate our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones, which nature had not given us; that we disarmed ourselves of the few abilities she had bestowed; had been very successful in multiplying our original wants, and seemed to spend our whole lives in vain endeavours to supply them by our own inventions; that, as to myself, it was manifest I had neither the strength nor agility of a common Yahoo; that I walked infirmly on my hinder feet; had found out a contrivance to make my claws of no use or defence, and to remove the hair from my chin, which was intended as a shelter from the sun and the weather: lastly, that I could neither run with speed, nor climb trees like my brethren,” as he called them, “the Yahoos in his country.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)