playful
English
Alternative forms
- playfull (archaic)
Etymology
From Middle English pleiful, equivalent to play + -ful.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpleɪfəl/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪfəl, -eɪfʊl
Adjective
playful (comparative playfuller or more playful, superlative playfullest or most playful)
- liking play, prone to play frequently, such as a child or kitten; rather sportive.
- Actually, we are pretty playful in our romantic life.
- funny, humorous, jesting, frolicsome.
- John is a playful fellow.
- A party hat is a playful conical hat people wear at parties.
- 1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 593:
- Why this already very fast train should be speeded up still further, when none of the other more easily timed S.R. West of England trains has a single minute pared from its schedule, is unexplained - unless this is a playful dig at the Western Region, most of whose expresses, by reason of additional stops, will be decelerated from the same date.
- fun, recreational, not serious.
- A brainteaser is a playful puzzle posed as a test of intelligence.
- experimental.
- He was a rather playful artist.
Derived terms
Translations
liking or prone to play
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funny, humorous, jesting, frolicsome
|
fun, recreational, not serious
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