Sport

n. [Abbreviated from disport, q. v.] 1. That which diverts and makes mirth; game; diversion; mirth. Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight. Sidney. Think it but a minute spent in sport. Shak. 2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision. Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest. Shak. 3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about; a toy. “Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind.” Dryden. Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions. J. Clarke. 4. Play; idle jingle. An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause. Broome.

5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing, and the like.
6. (Bot.) A sporting plant. See SPORT, v. i., 4, and SPORTING.

In sport, in jest; for play or diversion. “So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport?” Prov. xxvi. 19. Syn.—Play; game; diversion; frolic; mirth; mock; mockery; jeer.

v. i. [imp. & p. p. SPORTED; p. pr. & vb. n. SPORTING.] 1. To play; to frolic; to wanton. They, sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold. Milton.

2. To practice the diversions of the field.
3. To trifle. “Because he sports with his own life.” Tillotson.
4. (Bot.) To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant;—said of a bud or shoot. Darwin.

Syn.—To play; frolic; game; wanton.