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词汇 sprightly
释义

Definition of sprightly in English:

sprightly

(also spritely)
adjectivesprightliest, sprightlierˈsprʌɪtliˈspraɪtli
  • (especially of an old person) lively; full of energy.

    (尤指老人)精力充沛的;充满活力的

    she was quite sprightly for her age

    就她的年龄来说,她精力相当充沛。

    Example sentencesExamples
    • When Lucy, a sprightly waitress with a song on her lips and in her heart, meets Adam, she gives up her ‘man-izing’ ways and wants to settle down.
    • A sprightly woman wrings her hands as if flirtatiously sizing up a fellow resident at the nursing home.
    • He is at ease with his age - a sprightly 64.
    • ‘We say that the day you don't think about falling, you will fall,’ says Corinne Pierre, a sprightly French-Canadian acrobat.
    • There was an amusing final theatrical flourish from the Conservative candidate, John Taylor, a sprightly 63-year-old.
    • Felicity, ‘a spunky, spritely girl growing up in Virginia in 1774,’ visits a local plantation where there are clearly slaves; the issue never arises.
    • Tom seems very well, spritely I think the word is.
    • Sergio Martino is spritely and lively in his discussion of this early project.
    • His lover, Mercedes, is a sprightly dancer who would have benefited from a brighter costume.
    • She was small and spritely with light hair and laughing hazel eyes, in contrast to Agathe who was tall, dark and solemn, although very graceful and beautiful.
    • This is not about becoming spritely, so much as a little celestial.
    • He looked as lively and sprightly as ever despite now being in his mid forties.
    • The spritely 27-year-old was swept in as a last-minute understudy for the part when Clairemarie Osta came down with double tendinitis.
    • Brian followed and greeted Michelle quietly while smiling at his spritely sister.
    Synonyms
    lively, spry, energetic, active, full of life, full of energy, vigorous, spirited, animated, vivacious, playful, jaunty, perky, frisky, agile, nimble
    informal chipper, sparkly, zippy, zappy, full of vim and vigour, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of beans
    North American informal peppy, peart
    Northern English informal wick
    archaic frolicsome, sportive, as lively/merry as a grig

Derivatives

  • sprightliness

  • nounˈsprʌɪtlɪnəsˈspraɪtlinəs
    • If I was known for my sprightliness on the field, it was because I gave everything to be fit and healthy.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • She was an engaging little creature, full of sprightliness and life.
      • Yet it was their sprightliness in attack, their urgency in scampering forward, that characterised the early exchanges at Rugby Park.
      • ‘Come on, let's get back to the inn,’ Chenok stood up with a sprightliness that you wouldn't find in a dying man.
      • ‘But I'm 18, that's how old I feel,’ he says - and there is, to be sure, a sprightliness about him still.

Origin

Late 16th century: from spright (rare variant of sprite) + -ly1.

  • spirit from Middle English:

    Our word spirit is based on Latin spiritus ‘breath or spirit’, from spirare ‘to breathe’—the ancient Romans believed that the human soul had been ‘breathed’ into the body—the image is the same as ‘the breath of life’. The sense ‘strong distilled alcoholic drink’ comes from the use in alchemy of spirit to mean ‘a liquid essence extracted from some substance’. People sometimes say the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak when they have good intentions but yield to temptation and fail to live up to them. The source is the New Testament, where Jesus uses the phrase after finding his disciples asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane despite telling them that they should stay awake. Spirare forms the basis of numerous English words including aspire (mid 16th century) from adspirare ‘to breath upon, seek to reach’; conspire (Late Middle English) from conspirare ‘to breath together, agree’; expire (late 16th century) ‘to breath out’; inspire (Late Middle English) ‘breath into’ from the idea that a divine or outside power has inspired you; and perspire (mid 17th century) ‘to breath through’; and transpire (Late Middle English) ‘breath across. In English spirit was shortened to sprite (Middle English) which in turn developed sprightly (late 16th century).

Rhymes

knightly, nightly, sightly

Definition of sprightly in US English:

sprightly

(also spritely)
adjectiveˈspraɪtliˈsprītlē
  • (especially of an old person) lively; full of energy.

    (尤指老人)精力充沛的;充满活力的

    she was quite sprightly for her age

    就她的年龄来说,她精力相当充沛。

    Example sentencesExamples
    • He looked as lively and sprightly as ever despite now being in his mid forties.
    • There was an amusing final theatrical flourish from the Conservative candidate, John Taylor, a sprightly 63-year-old.
    • His lover, Mercedes, is a sprightly dancer who would have benefited from a brighter costume.
    • Brian followed and greeted Michelle quietly while smiling at his spritely sister.
    • This is not about becoming spritely, so much as a little celestial.
    • When Lucy, a sprightly waitress with a song on her lips and in her heart, meets Adam, she gives up her ‘man-izing’ ways and wants to settle down.
    • Tom seems very well, spritely I think the word is.
    • She was small and spritely with light hair and laughing hazel eyes, in contrast to Agathe who was tall, dark and solemn, although very graceful and beautiful.
    • ‘We say that the day you don't think about falling, you will fall,’ says Corinne Pierre, a sprightly French-Canadian acrobat.
    • The spritely 27-year-old was swept in as a last-minute understudy for the part when Clairemarie Osta came down with double tendinitis.
    • Sergio Martino is spritely and lively in his discussion of this early project.
    • A sprightly woman wrings her hands as if flirtatiously sizing up a fellow resident at the nursing home.
    • Felicity, ‘a spunky, spritely girl growing up in Virginia in 1774,’ visits a local plantation where there are clearly slaves; the issue never arises.
    • He is at ease with his age - a sprightly 64.
    Synonyms
    lively, spry, energetic, active, full of life, full of energy, vigorous, spirited, animated, vivacious, playful, jaunty, perky, frisky, agile, nimble

Origin

Late 16th century: from spright (rare variant of sprite) + -ly.

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