sprightful, a. Now rare.
(ˈspraɪtfʊl)
Also 5 spryght-.
[f. spright n.1 Cf. spiritful a.]
1. Of persons: Full of spirit; animated, lively.
| 1595 Shakes. John iv. ii. 177 Spoke like a sprightfull Noble Gentleman. 1607 Beaum. & Fl. Woman Hater iv. iii, I could be far more sprightful, had I eaten. 1658 Bromhall Treat. Specters i. 112 The servant..recovering life, and becoming as sprightful as ever he was. 1692 O. Walker Grk. & Rom. Hist. 253 Julia Mœsa,..a Subtil, Prudent, and Sprightful Woman. 1780 H. Cowley Belle's Strat. 45 Parson Dobbins was the sprightfuller man of the two. |
| transf. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. 226 Our spright⁓full Pulse the Tide doth well resemble. |
† b. Of horses: Spirited.
Obs.| a 1635 Randolph in R. Dover Ann. Dubr. (1636) C iv b, A noble Swayne, That spurr'd his spright-full Palfrey ore the playne. 1656 Cowley Pindar. Odes, Extasie ix, The Horses were..The noblest, sprightfulst breed. 1674 J. Flavel Husb. Spiritualized ix. 105 If one should give thee a handsom and sprightful horse. |
2. Of actions, sounds, etc.: Marked by spirit, animation, or liveliness.
| 1628 Feltham Resolves ii. xiv. 40 Light aires turne vs into sprightfull actions; which breathe away in a loose laughter. 1638 Mayne Lucian (1664) 238 Who..thinke they haue done nothing great or sprightfull. 1681–4 J. Scott Chr. Life 8 The constant, free, and sprightful Exercise of his Faculties. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 321 Striking up the right jolly and sprightfull tune of Ca Ira. 1898 J. M. Cobban Angel of Covenant i. 3 ‘See, Alec!’ she cried in that sweet, sprightful voice which always moved me. |
† 3. Of liquids, etc.: Impregnated with spirit; spirituous.
Obs.| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 238 These bodies..are full of blacke, thicke and sprightfull blood. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Farew. Tower Bottles Wks. iii. 125/1 Few Ships my visitation did escape, That brought the sprightfull liquor of the Grape. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 113 The Pear-tree bears almost its weight of Sprightful Winy Liquor. |
Hence
ˈsprightfully adv.;
ˈsprightfulness.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 3 The Duke of Norfolke, *sprightfully and bold, Stayes but the summons of the Appealants Trumpet. 1611 Cotgr., Vivement, liuelily, quickly, lightly, sprightfully. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. xxxix. 299 He so sprightfully carried himself. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 23 Sept. 12/1 The girl..who ‘enjoys life sprightfully, daringly, and glowingly’. |
| 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche xv. ci, He who our brave *sprightfulness could make Of dull and sleepy nothing. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies i. ix. 35 In the Competitorship for Sprightfulness, we find one..surpassed by the other. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 16. 1/2 That spright⁓fullness of Thought, he had been formerly Master of. 1898 J. M. Cobban Angel of Covenant p. xii, Ye knew not..the wit and sprightfulness of his speech. |