Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To bound or prance about in a sprightly manner; caper.
  • intransitive verb To have lively or boisterous fun; romp.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To curvet; prance about: said of a horse.
  • To bustle about nimbly or eagerly: said of a person.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb Local slang, U. S. To prance ostentatiously; -- said of a horse or his rider.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To prance, said of mounts
  • verb intransitive To move about carelessly, playfully or boisterously.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb play boisterously

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly alteration of curvet.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

Comments

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  • Then I heard my dream was back downstream cavortin' in Davenport,

    And I followed you, Big River, when you called.

    (Johnny Cash: Big River)

    April 16, 2010