Definition of "sport"

sport

/spɔːt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural sports
1. (countable) Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.
2. (countable) A person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship.
3. (countable) Somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirably good-natured manner, e.g. to being teased or to losing a game; a good sport.
4. (obsolete) That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
  Quotations
  Think it but a minute spent in sport.
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
  Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.
  c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 21”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, page 283
  The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon.
  a. 1765, year of origin unknown, Hey Diddle Diddle (traditional rhyme)
5. (obsolete) Mockery, making fun; derision.
  Quotations
  Why then make ſport at me, then let me be your ieſt
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii], page 58, column 2
6. (countable) A toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
  Quotations
  flitting leaves, the sport of every wind
  1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions.
  a. 1676, John Clarke, On Governing the Temper
7. (uncountable) Gaming for money as in racing, hunting, or fishing.
8. (biology, botany, zoology, countable) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects.
  Quotations
  We never shot another like it, so I do not know if it was a `sport' or a distinct species.
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
  At Hortus Bulborum you will find heirloom narcissi that date back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like 'Duc van Tol' (1595) and its sports.
  2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎
9. (slang, countable) A sportsman; a gambler.
10. (slang, countable) One who consorts with disreputable people, including prostitutes.
11. (obsolete, uncountable) An amorous dalliance.
12. (informal, usually singular) A friend or acquaintance (chiefly used when speaking to the friend in question)
  Quotations
  "Say, sport!" he would say briskly.
  1924 July, Ellis Butler, “The Little Tin Godlets”, in The Rotarian‎, volume 25, number 1, Rotary International, page 14
13. Term of endearment used by an adult for a child, usually a boy.
14. (obsolete) Play; idle jingle.
  Quotations
  An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage […] would meet with small applause.
  1725-1726, William Broome, The Odyssey
verb
third-person singular simple present sports, present participle sporting, simple past and past participle sported
1. (intransitive) To amuse oneself, to play.
2. (intransitive) To mock or tease, treat lightly, toy with.
  Quotations
  He sports with his own life.
  1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious
3. (transitive) To display; to have as a notable feature.
  Quotations
  [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
  2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
  He was especially happy to see one of the most important discoveries make it to the screen: dinosaurs that sported feathers. But judging from the emails he has been receiving, some moviegoers did not share his excitement.
  2023 June 3, Carl Zimmer, “How Did Birds First Take Off?”, in The New York Times‎
4. (reflexive) To divert; to amuse; to make merry.
  Quotations
  Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Isaiah 57:4
5. (transitive) To represent by any kind of play.
  Quotations
  Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.
  1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […]
6. To practise the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
7. To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal.
  Quotations
  more than one kind of rose has sported into a moss
  1860, Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication
8. (transitive, archaic) To close (a door).
  Quotations
  There he locked it up in a drawer, sported the doors of both sets of rooms, and retired to bed.
  1904, M. R. James, The Mezzotint

Definition of "sport"

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noun

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