high-spirited

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

high-spirited (comparative more high-spirited, superlative most high-spirited)

1. Possessing a bold nature.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 2, in The Black Dwarf:

     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.

   • 1918, Jack London, The Princess:

     "She was as fine a figure of a woman as I was a man, as high-spirited and courageous, as reckless and dare-devilish."

2. Energetic, exuberant, or high-strung.
   • 1861, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, chapter 1, in Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1950 September 25, “Music: Out of the Corner”, in Time:

     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.

Translations

possessing a bold nature

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 昂揚／昂扬 (zh) (ángyáng)

• German: übermütig (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ὑπέρθυμος (hupérthumos)

• Irish: móraigeanta, ardintinneach, ardaigeanta
• Italian: indiavolato (it), effervescente (it), esuberante (it)
• Manx: ard-spyrrydagh
• Russian: жизнера́достный (ru) (žiznerádostnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: inntinneach

energetic — see energetic