SPIRITED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does spirited mean? 

• SPIRITED (adjective)
  The adjective SPIRITED has 4 senses:

1. displaying animation, vigor, or liveliness

2. marked by lively action

3. willing to face danger

4. made lively or spirited

  Familiarity information: SPIRITED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPIRITED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Displaying animation, vigor, or liveliness

Similar:

barmy; yeasty; zestful; zesty (marked by spirited enjoyment)

vibrant; vivacious (vigorous and animated)

sprightly (full of spirit and vitality)

snappy; whipping (smart and fashionable)

resilient (recovering readily from adversity, depression, or the like)

mettlesome (having a proud and unbroken spirit)

lively; racy (full of zest or vigor)

impertinent; irreverent; pert; saucy (characterized by a lightly pert and exuberant quality)

feisty; plucky; spunky (showing courage)

ebullient; exuberant; high-spirited (joyously unrestrained)

dashing; gallant (lively and spirited)

con brio (with vigor)

boisterous; knockabout (full of rough and exuberant animal spirits)

Also:

enthusiastic (having or showing great excitement and interest)

energetic (possessing or exerting or displaying energy)

lively (full of life and energy)

Attribute:

animation; brio; invigoration; spiritedness; vivification (quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous)

Antonym:

spiritless (lacking ardor or vigor or energy)

Derivation:

spiritedness (quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by lively action

Synonyms:

bouncing; bouncy; peppy; spirited; zippy

Context example:

a spirited dance

Similar:

lively (full of life and energy)

Derivation:

spiritedness (quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Willing to face danger

Synonyms:

game; gamey; gamy; gritty; mettlesome; spirited; spunky

Similar:

brave; courageous (possessing or displaying courage; able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Made lively or spirited

Synonyms:

enlivened; spirited

Context example:

a spirited debate

Similar:

alive; animated (having life or vigor or spirit)

Derivation:

spiritedness (quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous)

 Context examples 

Oh, don't think of me! she replied with spirited earnestness, though her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke, don't think of MY health.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

His words, spirited as they were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice in which they were uttered.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Oh! my eye!” he said, looking very low-spirited, “I am sorry for that.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I feel strangely sad and low-spirited to-day.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Public-spirited citizens took down their rifles and went out after him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Her next movement was as unexpected as it was spirited.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“You shall likewise have a suit of red armour for the occasion, and ride on a spirited chestnut-horse.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

So spirited a creature would have certainly roused the soundest of sleepers when it felt the prick of the knife.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Sing!" said she, and again touching the piano, she commenced an accompaniment in spirited style.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She heard of a young horse at the farm house over the river, and though a lady had never ridden him, she resolved to try, because he was handsome and spirited.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)