Meaning & use
disport
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitiveliteraryold-fashioned
To enjoy yourself in a lively, playful way, often in a place where you can move about freely.
Grammar: Often reflexive with 'yourself', or used with 'in' or 'on': they disported themselves on the beach.
Patterns
- disport yourself
- disport yourself in something
- disport yourself on something
- disport in something
The children disported themselves happily in the shallow water.
On summer evenings the whole family would disport on the lawn until dark.
Seals disported in the waves just beyond the rocks.
verbtransitiveliteraryrare
To amuse or entertain someone with playful activity.
Grammar: Takes an object naming the person entertained: the clown disported the crowd.
Patterns
- disport someone
The young musicians disported the guests with cheerful tunes.
He told jokes meant to disport the tired travelers.
Word forms
| third person singular | disports |
|---|---|
| past tense | disported |
| past participle | disported |
| -ing form | disporting |
Common combinations
- disport yourself
- The guests disported themselves in the garden after lunch.
- disport on the beach
- On holiday we disported on the beach from morning till night.
- disport in the water
- Dolphins were disporting in the water beside the boat.
- frolic and disport
- The lambs frolicked and disported in the spring sunshine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- frolic
- Frolic is more common today and stresses cheerful, jumping movement, especially of animals or children.
- romp
- Romp suggests rough, noisy play and is used more in everyday writing than disport.
- cavort
- Cavort means to move about excitedly and is often slightly disapproving, unlike the gentler disport.
Opposites
Word family
- disportment noun
- The act of enjoying yourself playfully; a rare literary noun.
Commonly confused: disport or deport? disport or sport?
disport vs deport
Deport means to force a foreigner to leave a country; disport means to play and enjoy yourself. They sound similar but have completely different meanings.
disport vs sport
Sport is the usual word for games like football; disport is an old literary verb meaning to play happily.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'disport' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Disport' means to play and enjoy yourself, often reflexively, so the puppies disporting themselves fits. Option 0 confuses it with 'deport' (expel a foreigner), and options 2 and 3 use it as if it meant 'kick' or 'put down', which it does not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disport”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.