sportive

Synonyms for sportive

adj lively

adjective. beautiful

adjective. tongue-in-cheek, kidding

1580s, from sport + -ive. Related: Sportively; sportiveness.

Such characters are not ruled by fate but by a sportive chance.

He plays with two sportive spaniels, and cries "Down, Sir, down."

Fred shook it as he wished, though he was far from feeling in a sportive mood.

During this sportive encounter, Mr. Regulus came up to greet me.

It is the only time I ever saw this hawk in a sportive or aggressive mood.

How shrunken with the sorrow of their wretched lives, and yet how sportive they seem!

The address at the head of this paper is no sportive invention of mine.

That is the point about American sport; that it is not in the least sportive.

With some sportive malice there was evidently a spice of truth in his remarks.

I've seen her as sportive as a young fawn at the Hall of Harmony.