sprack, a. Chiefly dial.
(spræk)
Also spract.
[Of obscure origin: current mainly in west midland and south-western counties. Cf. sprackly adv. and sprag a.]
Brisk, active; alert, smart; in good health and spirits.
| 1747 Aston Suppl. Cibber's Lives 15 Mr. Dogget was a little, lively, spract Man. 1785 S. Fielding Ophelia ii. vi, He will be..glad to hear you set out..so hoddy and sprack! 1817 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 92 She will not shrink from so sprack an adviser. Ibid. 111 She gives life to society, and everything is more sprack. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax vii, He observed that ‘master looked sprack agin’. 1880 Freeman in W. R. W. Stephens Life (1895) II. 195, I am getting mighty sprack, and live as it were with clenched fists. |
Hence ˈsprackish a.
| 1882 E. Nathan Langreath I. 312 Your Ladyship looks quite sprackish this evening! |