| / English Dictionary |
PLAYFULNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Activities that are enjoyable or amusing
Example:
he is fun to have around
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("playfulness" is a kind of...):
diversion; recreation (an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A disposition to find (or make) causes for amusement
Example:
he was fun to be with
Synonyms:
fun; playfulness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("playfulness" is a kind of...):
frivolity; frivolousness (the trait of being frivolous; not serious or sensible)
Attribute:
playful (full of fun and high spirits)
serious; sober; unplayful (completely lacking in playfulness)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "playfulness"):
facetiousness (playful humor)
archness; impertinence; perkiness; pertness; sauciness (inappropriate playfulness)
friskiness; frolicsomeness; sportiveness (lively high-spirited playfulness)
impishness; mischievousness; puckishness; whimsicality (the trait of behaving like an imp)
humor; humour; sense of humor; sense of humour (the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A festive merry feeling
Synonyms:
gaiety; playfulness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("playfulness" is a kind of...):
levity (feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness)
Derivation:
playful (full of fun and high spirits)
Context examples:
Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
If I tacitly checked this playfulness, and persisted, she would look so scared and disconsolate, as she became more and more bewildered, that the remembrance of her natural gaiety when I first strayed into her path, and of her being my child-wife, would come reproachfully upon me; and I would lay the pencil down, and call for the guitar.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
'I did not make the allowances,' said she, 'which I ought to have done, for his temper and spirits—his delightful spirits, and that gaiety, that playfulness of disposition, which, under any other circumstances, would, I am sure, have been as constantly bewitching to me, as they were at first.'
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
She could think of William the next day more cheerfully; and as the morning afforded her an opportunity of talking over Thursday night with Mrs. Grant and Miss Crawford, in a very handsome style, with all the heightenings of imagination, and all the laughs of playfulness which are so essential to the shade of a departed ball, she could afterwards bring her mind without much effort into its everyday state, and easily conform to the tranquillity of the present quiet week.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
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