It is as sport a fool do mischief. --prov. x. 23.
Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge
upon the stream of delight. --Sir P.
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 in
play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
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 pasions.
--John Clarke.
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,
racing, games, and the like, esp. when money is staked.
6. (Bot. & Zo["o]l.) 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. See {Sporting
plant}, under {Sporting}.
7. A sportsman; a gambler. [Slang]
{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.
[Fish], sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun
their waved coats dropt with gold. --Milton.
2. To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be
given to betting, as upon races.
3. To trifle. ``He sports with his own life.'' --Tillotson.
4. (Bot. & Zo["o]l.) 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.
See {Sport}, n., 6. --Darwin.
Syn: To play; frolic; game; wanton.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? --Isa. lvii.
4.
2. To represent by any knd of play.
Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.
--Dryden.
3. To exhibit, or bring out, in public; to use or wear; as,
to sport a new equipage. [Colloq.] --Grose.
4. To give utterance to in a sportive manner; to throw out in
an easy and copious manner; -- with off; as, to sport off
epigrams. --Addison.
{To sport one's oak}. See under {Oak}, n.