SPORTIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sportive mean? 

• SPORTIVE (adjective)
  The adjective SPORTIVE has 2 senses:

1. relating to or interested in sports

2. given to merry frolicking

  Familiarity information: SPORTIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPORTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or interested in sports

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Pertainym:

sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Given to merry frolicking

Synonyms:

coltish; frolicky; frolicsome; rollicking; sportive

Context example:

frolicsome students celebrated their graduation with parties and practical jokes

Similar:

playful (full of fun and high spirits)

Derivation:

sportiveness (lively high-spirited playfulness)

 Context examples 

Traddles would be often at the bottom of the staircase, looking on, and taking charge of sportive messages from Dora to the dearest girl in the world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Georgiana had the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth; though at first she often listened with an astonishment bordering on alarm at her lively, sportive, manner of talking to her brother.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She seldom ran—it did not suit her style, she thought, for being tall, the stately and Junoesque was more appropriate than the sportive or piquante.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She did—almost always—believe that Henry loved her, and quite always that his father and sister loved and even wished her to belong to them; and believing so far, her doubts and anxieties were merely sportive irritations.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)