cavort

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
11
Words With Friends
13
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/kəˈvɔːt/ (UK)
See all 3 pronunciations
/kəˈvɔːt/ (UK) · /kəˈvɔɹt/ (US) · /kəˈvoːt/

Definition of cavort

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. To prance, frolic, gambol.
    “[…] when the young man whirled his horse, “hazed” Jupiter in circles and belaboured him with a rawhide quirt, […] He ceased his cavortings […]”
See all 3 definitions

verb

  1. To prance, frolic, gambol.
    “[…] when the young man whirled his horse, “hazed” Jupiter in circles and belaboured him with a rawhide quirt, […] He ceased his cavortings […]”
  2. (intransitive)To move about carelessly, playfully or boisterously.
    “And dragon-flies sported around and cavorted, / As poets say dragon-flies ought to do; […]”
    “He whirligigged and pirouetted, dancing and cavorting round like an inebriated ape.”
    “[…]and soon a high-spirited snowball fight was being waged by dozens of happy, hyperkinetic boys cavorting in dungarees and T-shirts, in sweatsuits, in pajamas, even some in only underwear.”
    “They descended by the tens of thousands on Britain’s southern beaches and jammed into city parks. They cavorted by the hundreds in streams.”
    “[…] while a woman in a bright red coat cavorts through a crosswalk with what appears to be an impeccably groomed Afghan hound.”
  3. (informal)To engage in extravagant pursuits, especially of a sexual nature.
    “As he moves back into the shadows, the stage is taken over by a troupe of Pan-like dancers, leaping and cavorting in an obscene ballet.”
    “We can't even write stories about moguls like Rupert Murdoch or Barry Diller unless it involves photographs of them cavorting with young flesh.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Originated in the United States in 1793, as cauvaut, applying to horses, probably from the colloquial intensifying prefix ca-/ka- + vault (“jump, leap”); later generalized. Early sources connect it to cavault, a term for a certain demeanor of horses. Alternatively, a variation of curvet.

Anagrams of cavort

1 play · some not in Scrabble

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to cavort to make another valid word.

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