sport

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.

   “Basketball is her favorite sport, and she also enjoys various other sports as well.”

   “Sport can be an excellent form of exercise because the competition and sense of achievement can help with both motivation and pleasure.”

2. (countable)A person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship.

   “Jen may have won, but she was sure a poor sport; she laughed at the loser.”

   “The loser was a good sport, and congratulated Jen on her performance.”

3. (countable)Somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirably good-natured manner, e.g. to being teased or to losing a game; a good sport.

   “You're such a sport! You never get upset when we tease you.”

4. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Something fun, pastime; amusement.

   “Think it but a minute spent in sport.”

   “Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.”

   “The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon.”

5. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Mockery, making fun; derision.

   “Why then make ſport at me, then let me be your ieſt”

6. (countable)A toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.

   “flitting leaves, the sport of every wind”

   “Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions.”

7. (uncountable)Gaming for money as in racing, hunting, or fishing.
8. (countable)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. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects.

   “We never shot another like it, so I do not know if it was a `sport' or a distinct species.”

   “At Hortus Bulborum you will find heirloom narcissi that date back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like 'Duc van Tol' (1595) and its sports.”

9. (countable, slang)A sportsman; a gambler.

   “See my dressed like all the sports/In my blazer and a pair of shorts.”

10. (countable, slang)One who consorts with disreputable people, including prostitutes.
11. (obsolete, uncountable)An amorous dalliance.
12. (countable, informal, singular, uncountable, usually)A friend or acquaintance (chiefly used when speaking to the friend in question)

    “"Say, sport!" he would say briskly.”

13. (countable, uncountable)Term of endearment used by an adult for a child, usually a boy.

    “Hey, sport! You've gotten so big since I saw you last! Give me five.”

    “Tie me kangaroo down, sport/Tie me kangaroo down/Tie me kangaroo down, sport/Tie me kangaroo down.”

14. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Play; idle jingle.

    “1725-1726, William Broome, The Odyssey An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage […] would meet with small applause.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To amuse oneself, to play.

   “children sporting on the green”

2. (intransitive)To mock or tease, treat lightly, toy with.

   “Jen sports with Bill's emotions.”

   “He sports with his own life.”

3. (transitive)To display; to have as a notable feature.

   “Jen's sporting a new pair of shoes; he was sporting a new wound from the combat”

   “But despite its plague of tunnels, the run-in on this route is of unusual interest to the locomotive enthusiast: besides the hordes of self-important saddle-tanks shunting in the extensive yards, there was at one time the chance of seeing those slender little North London engines, with their large outside cylinders and no visible storage place for coal, and also an occasional South Eastern locomotive sporting a lot of polished brass.”

   “[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].”

   “He was especially happy to see one of the most important discoveries make it to the screen: dinosaurs that sported feathers. But judging from the emails he has been receiving, some moviegoers did not share his excitement.”

4. (reflexive)To divert; to amuse; to make merry.

   “Against whom do ye sport yourselves?”

5. (transitive)To represent by any kind of play.

   “Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.”

6. To practise the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
7. 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.

   “more than one kind of rose has sported into a moss”

8. (archaic, transitive)To close (a door).

   “There he locked it up in a drawer, sported the doors of both sets of rooms, and retired to bed.”

name

1. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Strategic Partnership On REACH Testing.