SPORTING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sporting mean? 

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

1. exhibiting or calling for sportsmanship or fair play

2. relating to or used in sports

3. involving risk or willingness to take a risk

4. preoccupied with the pursuit of pleasure and especially games of chance

  Familiarity information: SPORTING used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPORTING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exhibiting or calling for sportsmanship or fair play

Synonyms:

clean; sporting; sportsmanlike; sporty

Context example:

sportsmanlike conduct

Similar:

fair; just (free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception; conforming with established standards or rules)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Relating to or used in sports

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

sporting equipment

Pertainym:

sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Involving risk or willingness to take a risk

Context example:

sporting blood

Similar:

adventuresome; adventurous (willing to undertake or seeking out new and daring enterprises)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Preoccupied with the pursuit of pleasure and especially games of chance

Synonyms:

betting; card-playing; dissipated; sporting

Context example:

sporting gents and their ladies

Similar:

indulgent (characterized by or given to yielding to the wishes of someone)

 Context examples 

Non-sporting dogs are a diverse group.

(Non-Sporting Breed, NCI Thesaurus)

“We are glad that you have stepped up, that we might consult you as to the arrangements for giving effect to your very sporting challenge.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Alternatively, you might attend a big sporting event or trade show that has a number of beautiful industry parties associated with it.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

And there's another fellow—Parry—an Australian, a statistician and a sporting encyclopaedia.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Ha, ha! I think I would risk a little sporting flutter that you don’t go there at all.

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

Now you, with this sporting pose of yours—

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not that he will value it as he ought, he observed, Charles is too cool about sporting.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Between ourselves, Watson, it’s a sporting duel between this fellow Milverton and me.

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

"But the beast would certainly have a good sporting chance."

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His wife was not always out of humour, nor his home always uncomfortable; and in his breed of horses and dogs, and in sporting of every kind, he found no inconsiderable degree of domestic felicity.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)