Dictionary

high-spirited en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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Meanings

1. Possessing a bold nature.
   • The more high-spirited among the youth were, about the time that our narrative begins, expecting, rather with hope than apprehension, an opportunity of emulating their fathers in their military achievements. 1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 2, in The Black Dwarf:
   • "She was as fine a figure of a woman as I was a man, as high-spirited and courageous, as reckless and dare-devilish." 1918, Jack London, The Princess:
2. Energetic, exuberant, or high-strung.
   • Last week a group of four high-spirited folksters known as the Weavers had succeeded in shouting, twanging and crooning folk singing out of its cloistered corner. 1950 September 25, “Music: Out of the Corner”, in Time:
   • Though she was nineteen she gave the effect of a high-spirited precocious child, and in the present glow of her youth and beauty all the men and women she had known were but driftwood on the ripples of her temperament. 1920 May 27, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Offshore Pirate”, in Flappers and Philosophers, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published September 1920, →OCLC, part III, page 16:
   • Their poor mother was, I believe, naturally a lighthearted, sociable, high-spirited little creature; and her gay and childish nature pined in the isolation and gloom of her lot. 1861, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, chapter 1, in Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen:

Forms

Deriveds

high-spiritedness

Synonyms

exalted · sassy

Translations (14)

gv ard-spyrrydagh (possessing a bold nature) · pl żywy (possessing a bold nature) · it esuberante (possessing a bold nature) · gd inntinneach (possessing a bold nature) · it indiavolato (possessing a bold nature) · grc ὑπέρθυμος (possessing a bold nature) · pl żwawy (possessing a bold nature) · ga ardintinneach (possessing a bold nature) · cmn 昂揚 /昂扬 (possessing a bold nature) · ga móraigeanta (possessing a bold nature) · ru жизнера́достный (possessing a bold nature) · it effervescente (possessing a bold nature) · ga ardaigeanta (possessing a bold nature) · de übermütig (possessing a bold nature)