cavort

verb

ca·vort kə-ˈvȯrt How to pronounce cavort (audio)

cavorted; cavorting; cavorts

intransitive verb

: to leap or dance about in a lively manner

Otters cavorted in the stream.

: to engage in extravagant behavior

The governor has been criticized for cavorting with celebrities.

Example Sentences

Otters cavorted in the stream. children cavorting on the first sunny day of spring

Recent Examples on the Web The best divers and gymnasts can be awfully feline in their flips; NASA, too, has looked to cats to teach astronauts to cavort through gravity-free space.

Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2022 In America, the film ran into surprisingly little censorship trouble, despite the blood, the vulgarity, and a risqué scene where the German soldiers cavort with a bevy of friendly French girls.

Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Sep. 2022 Soon conversation turned to a club in Japan where women are said to cavort with octopuses.

New York Times, 15 Apr. 2022 Of the several hundred attendees celebrating the freedom to cavort without masks or social distancing, at least 72 came down with COVID over the following few days.

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2022 The license to cavort and disregard the strictures of Lent is Ireland's version of Carnival.

CNN, 17 Mar. 2022 Gray whales spend winters in the shallow lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, where females nurse their calves and others cavort and mate.

Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2021 Fairies dance in the shadow of a New Hampshire forest, and peasant children cavort amid the greenery of Brookline’s Larz Anderson Park.

BostonGlobe.com, 19 May 2021 The dream there is to create another Marvel-like universe of characters who could cavort across different platforms.

Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2020 See More

Word History

Etymology

earlier also cauvaut, cavault, covault, of obscure origin

Note: All early attestations of the word are North American, the first known (as cauvauted) in a letter written by the North Carolina politician John Steele in April, 1794. Various etymologies have been suggested: that the word is altered from curvet entry 1; that it is comprised of the unstressed expressive prefix ca- (as in caboodle) and vault entry 3; that it has some relation with French chahuter "to dance the chahut (a boisterous, somewhat indecent dance), to make an uproar" (see Leo Spitzer, "Cavort," Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 48 (1949), pp. 132-37). Apparently the same word is cavaulting "coition" in John Camden Hotten's A Dictionary of Modern, Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (London, 1859). In the second edition of Hotten's dictionary (London, 1860) the word has the etymological note "Lingua Franca, cavolta," though there appears to be no evidence for such a word in Lingua Franca.

First Known Use

1794, in the meaning defined at sense 1

单词	cavort
释义	cavort verb ca·vort kə-ˈvȯrt cavorted; cavorting; cavorts intransitive verb 1 : to leap or dance about in a lively manner Otters cavorted in the stream. 2 : to engage in extravagant behavior The governor has been criticized for cavorting with celebrities. Synonyms caper disport frisk frolic gambol lark rollick romp sport See all Synonyms & Antonyms Example Sentences Otters cavorted in the stream. children cavorting on the first sunny day of spring Recent Examples on the Web The best divers and gymnasts can be awfully feline in their flips; NASA, too, has looked to cats to teach astronauts to cavort through gravity-free space. Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2022 In America, the film ran into surprisingly little censorship trouble, despite the blood, the vulgarity, and a risqué scene where the German soldiers cavort with a bevy of friendly French girls. Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Sep. 2022 Soon conversation turned to a club in Japan where women are said to cavort with octopuses. New York Times, 15 Apr. 2022 Of the several hundred attendees celebrating the freedom to cavort without masks or social distancing, at least 72 came down with COVID over the following few days. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2022 The license to cavort and disregard the strictures of Lent is Ireland's version of Carnival. CNN, 17 Mar. 2022 Gray whales spend winters in the shallow lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, where females nurse their calves and others cavort and mate. Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2021 Fairies dance in the shadow of a New Hampshire forest, and peasant children cavort amid the greenery of Brookline’s Larz Anderson Park. BostonGlobe.com, 19 May 2021 The dream there is to create another Marvel-like universe of characters who could cavort across different platforms. Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2020 See More Word History Etymology earlier also cauvaut, cavault, covault, of obscure origin Note: All early attestations of the word are North American, the first known (as cauvauted) in a letter written by the North Carolina politician John Steele in April, 1794. Various etymologies have been suggested: that the word is altered from curvet entry 1; that it is comprised of the unstressed expressive prefix ca- (as in caboodle) and vault entry 3; that it has some relation with French chahuter "to dance the chahut (a boisterous, somewhat indecent dance), to make an uproar" (see Leo Spitzer, "Cavort," Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 48 (1949), pp. 132-37). Apparently the same word is cavaulting "coition" in John Camden Hotten's A Dictionary of Modern, Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (London, 1859). In the second edition of Hotten's dictionary (London, 1860) the word has the etymological note "Lingua Franca, cavolta," though there appears to be no evidence for such a word in Lingua Franca. First Known Use 1794, in the meaning defined at sense 1 Kids Definition cavort verb ca·vort kə-ˈvort cavorted; cavorting : to move or hop about in a lively way … I saw the raccoons cavort around my fireplace … Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain cavort verb as in to gambol to play and run about happily children cavorting on the first sunny day of spring Synonyms & Similar Words Relevance gambol dance frolic romp hop leap rollick skip revel caper lark tumble prance cut capers frisk disport sport carouse bound lope roister curvet spring trip kick up one's heels cut up horse around roughhouse clown kite fool around joyride carry on skylark Antonyms & Near Antonyms sulk stew pout mope
随便看	dollop (out) dollop out dolloped dolloped (out) dolloped out dolloping dolloping (out) dolloping out dollops dollops (out) dollops out dolls dolls up dolls' house dolly dolly bar dolly bird dolly birds dolly block dolly shot dolly tub Dolly Varden Dolly Varden crab dolly varden trout dolly-mop

cavort

verb

Synonyms

Example Sentences

Word History

Kids Definition

verb

verb