playful, a.
(ˈpleɪfʊl)
[f. play n. + -ful.]
Full of play, frolicsome, sportive; also, showing a sportive or sprightly humour, pleasantly humorous or jocular, jocund, merry.
| a 1240 Lofsong in Cott. Hom. 205 Tovel spac and slow to Godd..sumehwile to pleiful, to drupi oðer hwiles. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. (Arb.) 64, I was neuer, either Stoick in doctrine, or Anabaptist in Religion to mislike a merie, pleasant, and plaifull nature. a 1719 Addison (J.), He is scandalized at youth for being lively, and at childhood for being playful. 1798 Bloomfield Farmer's Boy, Autumn 340 Loud the Scream Of Geese impatient for the playful Stream. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 849 His scorn, his love, in playful words he spoke. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. vii. 208 The playful humour which immortalised John Gilpin. |