Definitions

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

  • adjective Appropriate for sport or participation in sports.
  • adjective Exhibiting sportsmanship; sporting.
  • adjective Flashy; jazzy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Sporting; devoted to sports; characteristic of sportsmen; game.

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

  • adjective Favourable to sports
  • adjective Flashy in appearance.

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

  • adjective exhibiting or calling for sportsmanship or fair play
  • adjective (used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display
  • adjective appropriate for sport or engagement in a sport

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Maybe I disagree with the term sporty because since I've been here our premier teams haven't been remarkable.

    News 2009

  • Dressed in sporty looking Edith Head ensembles, Stanwyck is quite the silver fox and could easily have been the romantic interest here.

    2009 August : Scrubbles.net 2009

  • Dressed in sporty looking Edith Head ensembles, Stanwyck is quite the silver fox and could easily have been the romantic interest here.

    Weekly Mishmash: August 23-29 : Scrubbles.net 2009

  • The word sporty and hybrid don't often appear in the same sentence, but that could soon change with the release of a new

    Technology Reviews, News 2010

  • Lincoln, of course, made a similar move for 2000 with its LS, which introduced the idea of sporty driving to a brand that, at that time, seemed just as discordant with the idea as Buick does now.

    2009 LA Auto Show: Odds, ends, and final thoughts 2009

  • She is described as sporty and spiteful with black hair.

    True Blood casting call for Debbie Pelt 2009

  • Lincoln, of course, made a similar move for 2000 with its LS, which introduced the idea of sporty driving to a brand that, at that time, seemed just as discordant with the idea as Buick does now.

    2009 LA Auto Show: Odds, ends, and final thoughts 2009

  • Although not what you'd call a sporty car, you can make the new S60 look sportier with an exterior styling kit that incorporates front and rear skid plates, two frames in the lower valence, side scuff plates, exhaust tailpipe finishers and 18-inch alloy wheels.

    Jalopnik Ray Wert 2010

  • Pininfarina, creator of many memorable Ferraris and Maseratis, will show a concept for an Alfa Romeo spider, as the Italians call a sporty convertible.

    post-gazette.com - News 2010

  • Fiat hopes there are many more customers who fondly recall the sporty Fiat image of bygone days-and are willing to forget reliability problems that plagued the automaker some owners said its name stood for Fix It Again, Tony before it pulled out of the U.S. market in

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2010

Comments

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  • Hard to believe this wasn't listed before today...

    "In official terms the attempt to help Tomizawa was categorized as an 'increased risk' mission, meaning the weather conditions were extreme and the survivor was in danger of perishing. The rescuers, therefore, were willing to accept a higher level of risk in order to save him. Among the actual crews these missions are referred to as 'sporty,' as in, 'Boy, it sure was sporty out there last night.' In general, sporty is good; it's what rescue is all about. An Air National Guard pararescue jumper—the military equivalent of Coast Guard rescue swimmers—might get half a dozen sporty rescues in a lifetime. These rescues are talked about, studied, and sometimes envied for years."

    —Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm, 1997 (NY: HarperCollins, 1999), 174

    August 26, 2009

  • You're right--it is hard to believe it wasn't listed sooner. I've never heard it used this way, though. It'd be funny if it weren't so dire.

    August 26, 2009

  • Well, it's dire to us mortals, but not to Coastie rescue swimmers and stuff who train their asses off for just this sort of thing. They are a different breed, that's for sure.

    August 26, 2009

  • Indeed.

    August 26, 2009