gamesome

comparative more gamesome · superlative most gamesome

1. Full of sport; playful.

   A pretty young Kitty, / She had that could Purr; / 'Tvvas gameſome and handſome, / And had a rare Furr; […]

   a. 1708 (date written), [Henry Playford], “Puss in a Corner: A New Song, to a Pretty New Tune Made by a Man of Quality”, in Thomas d’Urfey, compiler, Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; […], volume II, London: […] W. Pearson, for J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1719, →OCLC, page 82

   4 more examples

   In their gamesome but still serious way, one whispers to the other—“Jack, he’s robbed a widow;” or, “Joe, do you mark him; he’s a bigamist;” ...

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter IX, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   She stepped upon Sicilian grass, / Demeter's daughter, fresh and fair, / A child of light, a radiant lass, / And gamesome as the morning air.

   1862, Jean Ingelow, “Persephone”, in Poems

   Yet it was some time before Teddy would admit him into anything like what one might call intimacy, and premature attempts at gamesome familiarity were checked by the gathering thunder of a lazy growl that unmistakably bade the youngster keep his place.

   1915, Richard Le Gallienne, Vanishing Roads and Other Essays

   Tom Stoppard secured his place on the theatrical map in 1967 with this wordy curiosity, a highly philosophical but stage-smart play crafted by a gamesome wordsmith enamored of the power of language.

   2001 January 26, Erik Piepenburg, “Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead”, in Chicago Reader

   Synonyms: frisky, frolicky, frolicsome, playful, spritely