sportsman
(ˈspɔətsmən)
[f. sport n.1]
1. A man who follows, engages in, or practises sport; esp. one who hunts or shoots wild animals or game for pleasure.
Also transf., in recent use, one who in his conduct or dealings displays the typical good qualities of a sportsman.
| 1706–7 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i, Aim. A sportsman, I suppose? Bon. Yes, sir, he's a man of pleasure; he plays at whisk and smokes his pipe eight-and-forty hours together sometimes. 1727 Gay Begg. Op. i. ii, A good sportsman always lets the hen-partridges fly. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. xi. (1782) I. 367 His nephew..presumed to dart his javelin before that of his uncle... As a monarch and as a sportsman Odenathus was provoked. 1856 Kane Arctic Explor. II. xxviii. 277 Our sportsmen would clamber up the cliffs and come back laden with little auks. 1894 Outing XXIV. 476/1 Some have been true sportsmen—and as I take it, the phrase true sportsmen includes everything that is manly and gentlemanly. |
| transf. 1831–3 B. Hall Frag. Voy. & Trav. Ser. ii. I. 244 This skilful sea-sportsman [a dolphin] arranged all his springs..[so] that he contrived to fall, at the end of each, just under the very spot on which the exhausted Flying-fish were about to drop! |
b. sportsman's companion,
sportsman's knife (see
quots.).
| 1863 Athenæum 19 Dec. 841/3 Mr. Baskcomb exhibited an ancient nut-cracker, and a sportsman's companion, found at Tutbury Castle. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2288/1 Sportsman's Knife, one containing a number of tools, to be used in emergencies. |
c. Electr. (See
quots.)
| 1842 Francis Dict. Arts & Sci. s.v., Electrical Sportsman, an amusing and ingenious instrument, to illustrate the fact that a charged electrical jar will discharge itself if the outer and inner coating approach too closely. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 5598, Gas pistol, thunder house, sports⁓men, and other instrument[s] for showing the proportion of frictional electricity. |
2. U.S. A gambler, betting-man.