How To Use Playful In A Sentence

There are, true, a few tonal changes: the jokes are jokier, the touches of malice heavier, and she revels more obviously than before in the playfulness she brings to her performances. What Sarah Palin Doesn't Know
Mewme was an old cat not like the playful little kitten that Alison had first encountered after her mother entered her life.
The gorillas 'behaviour has strong similarities to the children's game tag, but is perhaps more like a playful exchange of punches that must be well-judged to ensure it does not escalate into a more serious fight. Gorillas learn about injustice and revenge by playing tag
He has become gruff and cold, a far cry from the playful, expansive carouser and rabble-rouser of the film's opening scenes. Come and Get It
However, introduction of songs which are rather playful in nature is quite new to the Gondi culture.

My children could spend hours watching playful monkeys at the primate exhibit.
Wit and playfulness is one thing, sending your models out in full Highland regalia is quite another. Times, Sunday Times
He gave her a playful punch on the arm.
The small head is solid gold in colour, with a happy, playful expression, wide square jaw and a red beard.
He is beautifully made with graceful horns, a slinky, prism-like tail, and playful, though mocking and feral, eyes.
The playful flirtation vanished from the dark woman's face in a flash and she straightened suddenly, firing a steel - cold glance my way.
One of the types I try to avoid is the "married but playful" kind: the ones that are stepping out on their spouses to indulge their preferences on the down-low. Recommended Reading
Much of the art he discusses is funny, playful and mischievous. Times, Sunday Times
I have not been a learner of foreign languages for any significant lengths of time to be able to introspect usefully for the benefit of your discussion, but I have noted how on those few occasions, the change of costumes and locale has a truly powerful effect on my motivation, my willingness to be playful and adventurous, to take risks and experiment with new or old-new phrases and words. I is for Identity « An A-Z of ELT
The American replied in a similar playful ferocity — the two warriors made a little tournament for us there on the plains before Jaffa, in the which diachylon, being a little worsted, challenged his adversary to a race, and fled away on his grey, the Notes of a Journey From Cornhill to Grand Cairo
It is as if the rigidity of the object were at war with a softening, playful freedom.
‘You don't look so bad yourself’ I said while giving him a playful shove on the shoulder.
He is a great, flabby sham, an actor close to suicide, maybe - and this is an extraordinary display of incipient madness or incorrigible playfulness.
Even in an arena as illogical and playful as football, my faith in modernity, science, and rationality remains unshaken.
She smiled at his playfulness and bit into an apple, tonguing a bit of sweet juice that threatened to run down the side of her lip.
And yet there is a playfulness about the expert finders.
“Yetta, Yetta, Yetta,” Rahel said in a singsongy voice, playfully swinging around a lamppost. Uprising
It is best to be light and playful rather than heavy and serious in order to achieve your goals.
It is a vivacious, playful blend of salsa and canzonetta.
It was almost a prayer, but a prayer that included a thousand meanings Daylight strove to feign sheepishness, but his heart was singing too wild a song for mere playfulness. Chapter XXIV
They engaged in some playful four-handed piano playing as the audience sang and clapped along with the musicians.
This little sally may be considered as a specimen of that playful sprightliness which is so much the characteristic of the french female. The Stranger in France or, a Tour from Devonshire to Paris Illustrated by Engravings in Aqua Tint of Sketches Taken on the Spot.
he gave her cheek a playful squeeze
And it lives in the designs of Issey Miyake, the playful visionary whose métier is making clothes.
There is something playfully provocative about a man extolling the virtues of privacy while surrounded by a cabal of at least 20 people. Times, Sunday Times
Again, her eyes held a playful, puckish gleam that I couldn't help but not ignore.
After luxuriating in the playful sonic palette (and fine cast of notable collaborators) that Byrne's one-time mucker Brian Eno brought to the band's studio productions, the listener's rudely woken by the later work.
He pouted playfully and walked out the back door towards the back lawn of the manor.
This is fabulous stuff, evocative and ethereal while also being playful and fun.
Heinz has made a habit of posing playful questions on its ketchup bottles “Are your french fries lonely?” and the next one may be a stumper: “Guess what my bottle is made of?” A new spin on the Heinz ketchup bottle
‘Now that,’ said Will, playfully pronging a sliver of bacon, ‘is painfully true.’
Her dance cavorts playfully between elegance and tease; a spin of the sari around her, and her perfectly toned midriff is exposed but for a swift moment.
her playfulness surprised me
It is a clever, playful piece of extratextual fun from a gifted and generous entertainer. Times, Sunday Times
Her vocabulary was composed of simple runs, skips, and jumps; large, expressive gestures and playful mime.
Her dance cavorts playfully between elegance and tease; a spin of the sari around her, and her perfectly toned midriff is exposed but for a swift moment.
A sleek master of gyrating, torpedoing, somersaulting "aquabatics," Mijbal becomes an indefatigable symbol of everything that is playful and self-delighting in the universe. Dispatches From the Natural World
Ground floor and blue prints then,' and then even more playfully, `or I could maybe give you a piggyback. FALLEN WOMEN
In the past fifteen years, her work has taken a distinct turn towards playful irony and exuberant narration.
Her designs are playful, and even ‘cheeky,’ but never babyishly girly.
My mare rolled over and over in the wet grass and was playful with the gelding, nipping at his hocks and tempting him to chase her.
Each breathes life into the poems with playful and vibrant paintings that capture the mood and lyricism of the poetry.
Despite the warning, the house is whimsical and playful. Times, Sunday Times
The original, which was made of jade, is found in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Other charming replicas spread along the walkways include the chaneques and yolbatanes, or playful elves, in which the local indigenous community still believes. Veracruz, Mexico: a feast for the senses
She was in one of her playful, mischievous moods, and that didn't bear well for him.
Instead of religious iconology, Cartier-Bresson finds playful expression in the Surrealistic image of a pair of high-heeled shoes shaped like a heart. Two Sides of the Same Coin
There's a kind of staidness and a kind of fear, I suppose, of playfulness, of merriment, of the colloquial and the demotic.
Keyes' latest masterpiece dwells on all of these, depicting voyeurism at its playful, charming finest.
Puffed sleeves and flounces convey a playful, romantic look.
She developed benignity with him, and a kind of benignity which was almost playful -- actually before tea was over including in some observation she made him the words "My dear boy. The Enchanted April
The film certainly succeeds in doing that - but it also taps into Barrie's well-documented yearning for a world in which playfulness and whimsy would always triumph over seriousness and propriety.
On the other hand, Jaki is clearly present in the rhythms which are straightforward but tricksy, deliberate but playful.
The highlight though is your up-close personal encounter with some very playful dolphins. The Sun
In fact, I see them as cartoons: playful and animated spirits that disrupt and enliven the dead.
Her optically dazzling, playfully psychedelic paintings are open to the charge of being about nothing more than retinal pleasure.
He had a long, sun-kissed face and a playful smile.
It needs to be playful - yet tender. Times, Sunday Times
The trick is that they're also a great foil for playful accessories in lemon yellow, tangerine, fuchsia, red, or sky-blue.
And the playful prints, ditzy designs and sculpted shapes look sure to be a massive hit. The Sun
The voice lilted playfully, running up and down his spine, as sensual as a warm hand. One Night in Scotland
‘People seem quite charmed by the idea of turning travel into something playful,’ says its Melbourne-based author, Rachael Antony.
With a slow deliberation she folded it and held it out to him with a playful innocence that made him want to rush over to her and kiss her.
Soon enough playful shoving escalated into an all-out war, which ended with Alex tackling Jamie to the floor.
The pair are perfectly in sync, their impeccably choreographed performances full of playful wit. Times, Sunday Times
Sometimes the word scherzando (joking) is used in musical notation to indicate that a passage should be executed in a playful manner. Environment news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
‘I'll take this one, you've been hogging all the customers all day,’ she laughed and he playfully stuck out his tongue at her and resumed putting the cups where they belong.
She tweaked his ear playfully.
Our playful dig drew plenty of interesting emails and surprisingly, very few flames.
And the playful prints, ditzy designs and sculpted shapes look sure to be a massive hit. The Sun
Laughter and playful antics are all part of the tour package aimed at those who are after a particular type of holiday.
The focus of the design proposition has been to help in opening up thedrinking occasionality, and communicating theconcept of ‘infectious playfulness’ for Baileys. Bailissimo Traveling Bar by Jump Studios
The decor is arty and playful, with murals in the bedrooms, 'goodnight' graffiti in the corridors and grand neogothic windows. Times, Sunday Times
From Zen koans to aural meditation, bobsledding to journaling, rolfing to silence to building a tree house, the many reality escapes are described in a fun, playful, familiar manner.
In fact, in modern usage, ‘scoundrel’ can be a playful term referring to a prankster or banterer.
He moves from the playful to the political, the complex to the simple, the physical to the philosophical and all with a beguiling lightness of touch. Times, Sunday Times
The mood is more playful than portentous. Times, Sunday Times
Soon, those handshakes turned into righteous hugs and hand pounds, hi-fives and playful back-slapping every time our paths connected. One Season
Graceful moray eels, deadly great white sharks, playful porpoises, and tiny crabs show up along the way, all to the enchanting tune of Serra's bouncy music score.
They playfully re-enact events and change details to match personal needs and desires.
It needs to be playful - yet tender. Times, Sunday Times
Marked allegretto scherzando, in the key of A minor, this piece has a lively, playful spirit.
Beautifully acted, sung and danced, this retains a playful yet sobering power. Times, Sunday Times
It was a strange disjuncture, the visual narrative hinting at a post-modern playfulness that the plodding music couldn't muster. Times, Sunday Times
In the films, he takes on the adventure novel, placing extraordinary people in extraordinary situations, and ironizing those structures in playfully dubious manners.
The three primary ones were: eros (passion and desire), ludus (flirtatious or playful love) and storge (familial love or companionship). Times, Sunday Times
He pinched the baby's cheek playfully.
Perhaps Opie aims to revisit this magical period with his playful works, distilling the everyday into odd but intriguing icons.
Witty, thoughtful, playful and soundful, these poems are a pleasure to read.
The seemingly slipshod construction and use of everyday materials belies the structural sleight-of-hand employed, and it is a startling, playful introduction to the exhibition.
A fabliau is a brief tale, often little more than an anecdote, with a sharp sting at the end of it; frequently it was in rime; generally satiric in intent, it was full of frank gayety and of playful humor. Introduction
Speed entertains with the frolicsome and playful musical antics delivered through ‘good-humored’ chirpy lyrics and hip-shaking thrusting musical impact.
The apes, saturated and peaceful, lived in sophisticated playfulness, or caught fleas in philosophic contemplation; the Neanderthaler trampled gloomily through the world, banging around with clubs. Autumn
His promise, in a letter of March 1, 1802, that _if_ he should write a second 'Maid of Orleans', Göschen should publish it, is only an author's playful 'jollying' of a friendly publisher. The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller
Later, House of Jazz playfully lifted up the sternness of black by mixing it with psychedelic colours and black and white chequered-patterns, creating a collection that pleased especially the young generation.
He hissed a playful hiss, the guard on the left staring with pleasure.
In response, their debut single for the major was a playful, painful cover of Al Green's ‘L.O.V.E. Love’ which featured a tortured sounding man trying to hit the high notes like an alley cat mewling on a fence.
Ted was charismatic, playful, strong-willed, and above all, one of a kind.
The point of using the classics in this kind of playful reverence is that I always felt the classics had become stuffy through being academized-is that what the word is? Jasper Fforde biography
The typical Beret statement is playfully provocative, experimental yet mining many of the same humorous and satirical veins tapped by Dada and Fluxus antiart. Chicago Reader
She smiled up at him, loving how playful he was and thinking about how lucky she was to have him.
Powers's reductive designs playfully reference early works in abstract painting while breaking new territory with their highly creative use of materials.
The numbers were so ugly — things like making only 31.2% of their shots, and missing 15 of 17 three-pointers — that Popovich playfully shoved aside the box score at the start of his postgame news conference. Mavs right at home in Game 3 win as Spurs hit new lows
Don Giovanni" was a dramma giocoso; in the better sense of the phrase, a playful drama -- a lyric comedy. A Book of Operas Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music
Effortlessly hip, inarguably authentic and surprisingly sweet, it is a low-fi love story with a fresh, playful spirit. Times, Sunday Times
Its tone is playful and frivolous but it makes some valid criticisms.
It's a state of affairs that makes the playful sexiness of the R & B singer seem radical.
You might stop at the beach to let warm waves spend themselves playfully against your bronzed body.
Pretty bow and lace details mix with playful florals, cherry prints, stripes and polka dot mesh.
Of course, these youngsters are also playful, naughty and mischievous as well.
So a bright and cute opening leads to something still playful, yet more murky and cruel. Times, Sunday Times
One of Mr. Echenoz's most unorthodox and playful novels, "Piano" 2004, extends this puckish futilitarianism to the realm of the afterlife. A Window Onto Comic Tedium
He was in a playful mood.
At Dagne's Reef we passed time with Ben and Jerry, a pair of groupers who clearly enjoy divers' company and gambolled around like playful puppies.
Some old fogies with no sense of playfulness and humor probably tattletaled.
Lee nudged my ribs with her elbow playfully, with a friendly familiarity that surprised me.
I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. Boing Boing
After reaching over and playfully slugging Sandy's arm, Carla remarked ‘I know it's part of your personality, but sometimes I get tired of your teasing.’
The objects on view at the Frick are props for a pretend world where the elite shed their public roles, to enact playful psychodramas in eroticized secrecy. At the Frick, Dreams of Ottoman Treasures
For example, if you like the idea of being playfully seduced by 1890s Parisian floozies, you may want to catch A Night at the Moulin Rouge.
Mr. Boal's action and dance additions, duly spelled out in the program's scene-by-scene chart, vary and at times jar: The opening, with the village children gamboling into view, looks more like a free-time ballet-class romp than the playful bucolic vignette. From the Northwest Emerges a New 'Giselle'
US Army Sgt Kyle Whalen, 22, playfully taps his helmet with an Iraqi boy's toy football helmet during a visit to the boy's school in Mosul.
For a second her mind broke free of the constraints of logic, imagining playful pixies and marauding dragons; captured princesses and vengeful princes.
SIXIXIS is a group of English designers exploring the creative possibilities of bent wood in playful products ranging from chairs to coat-hangers. Tom Price’s Melted Polyester Fleece Chairs | Inhabitat
In Antiguan, jumby means "playful spirit" and the resort's extracurricular activities cover the gamut, from snorkeling excursions to nearby Bird Island to champagne stargazing (you can spot the elusive Andromeda galaxy) and nighttime treks along Pasture Beach where the hawksbill sea turtle nests. TIME.com: Top Stories
Such was his confidence, that when a moose-bird impudently hopped up to him, he reached out at it with a playful paw. The Wall of the World
The camera cuts to young Jason spinning playfully on the counter stool.
Perhaps Opie aims to revisit this magical period with his playful works, distilling the everyday into odd but intriguing icons.
On a day that was full of chilly damp pizzle and various disappointments it was playful and chilling, thrilling and light-of-touch from the first word to the last. GR6: George Clooney’s Moustache by Rob Shearman « In The Gloaming Podcasts
Lined with red, the black box poem enacts its filiation yet playfully threatens its ground, where the once white chickens are now floating black hens.
He shot Janine a villainous grin as he pulled the car from his parking spot, she gave him an unamused look, but it became a playful grin seconds later.
His work, like the man himself, is serious and playful. Times, Sunday Times
A tornado of energy, she pushes a vision that varies from minimalist, quasi-architectural purity to funky playfulness.
In a rather neat and tidy package, the movie playfully portrays the highs and lows of a complicated dating process.
The entrance is marked by the word ‘mediatheque’ printed in playful outsized letters on the sliding doors.
She was a little overexcited and playful in the first few days, so she may have overdone it," said Cracknell. Anne the elephant says goodbye to the circus
Dodi is an extremely affectionate and healthy 4 month old ball of playfulness who can already urinate in his kitty litter tray. He is looking for a loving home for adoption.
Huge braziers of shining bronze lit the cavernous dining hall with dancing, playful flames.
When you mentioned playful rather than experimental I thought this sounds good – playful is much more optimistic, but I stopped reading not even halfway through to get to your commentary. A Bit of an Experiment « Tales from the Reading Room
This sort of playfulness is what makes blogs fun. tomemos Says: Matthew Yglesias » The Consumer Surplus Decade
It is romantic, potent and playful at once, and perfectly captures the balance between monumentality and motion, between eternity and perambulation, which is the essence of museums. The Guardian World News
I guess the most basic difference is that sudoku is a puzzle of logic - not a puzzle of esoteric knowledge and literate playfulness.
Henderson was a master of playful and sinister distortions, cleverly achieved in the darkroom.
Her eyes sought the monogram sculptured on the stone gate-pillars: 'E. L.' entwined in graceful curves on a rounded shield upheld by playful amorini. A German Pompadour Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Grävenitz, Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg
A light and playful rather than heavy and serious attitude brings success and goodwill.
We know not whether to admire most the genial, fresh, and discursive concinnity of the author, or his playful fancy, weird imagination, and compass of style, at once both objective and subjective .... The Biglow Papers
While the title playfully refers to the pressure artists face in WN.com - Articles related to Henry Rollins to perform Sunday at Diamond Ballroom Event: Ex-punk embraces power of words
He gained an early reputation for faith healing and clairvoyance and won fame throughout Mexico for his playful and unorthodox cures for a range of maladies including cancer and lameness.
I am making my way back to the kitchen when the spirit of my friend's home takes hold and a string of playful words escapes me, falling from my lips in one admirative gasp: French Word-A-Day:
A postmodern playfulness and irony are employed to challenge a Party icon, by co-opting fragments of an old socialist anthem as the basis of a rock song.
Remain light and playful rather than heavy and serious in personal or professional situations.
She dandled the fruit playfully, kissed it several times, and pretended to juggle it, while laughing with a delicious babbling brook of a laugh.
She meant it as a playful tease but snickers from the corner of the room made her lighthearted smile disappear.
Here the cusped arches open to the playful breeze and the women whiled away their time here.
Playfulness is an inborn ability that is hardwired into our genetic code.
The biggest problem was that the little one was a playful little kitten, and the older one just wanted to be left alone.
Young (a local schoolteacher who was recently named the Poet Laureate of Alexandria) that treat each letter of the alphabet to playful and urbane snatches of verse (reminiscent of Ogden Nash at his airiest), and video projections designed by Wendall K. Harrington. In performance: 21st Century Consort
His brother cuffed him playfully round the head.
Ali censures the heretic with a playful stare.
The period costumes are exquisite too, with gorgeous colour and playfulness seeping in, defying the gloom. Times, Sunday Times
Even something simple like Gabriel bicycling around while singing ‘Solsbury Hill’ came across as silly rather than playful.
The same playful mind that can be sensed in Mahendra's plays can be seen in the dynastic sculptures commissioned a little inland from Mamallapuram, at the Pallava capital of Kanchipuram: here we see the ladies of the court riding on elephants under crimson parasols; messengers arrive breathless at halls packed with courtiers; ambassadors from China sue for peace. India: The Place of Sex
As for his Excellency the Count di Monte Beni's ears," replied Hilda, smiling again at the dignity with which this title invested their playful friend, "you know we could never see their shape, on account of his clustering curls. The Marble Faun - Volume 1 The Romance of Monte Beni
Allana bent over and playfully kissed him on the lips as she said, ‘Nothing but the best for the brave, if somewhat fruity, captain.’
There is a joyous incandescence in the harmonies, a playful energy and a richness of colouration.
Vinegar gets added to stage wine, in playful vengeance, with predictable consequences. And Furthermore by Judi Dench – review
Just a quick snorkel should be enough to tick off this playful fish, which loves shallow lagoons and sheltered reefs. Times, Sunday Times
He writes in the patois of Barbados, in the voices of village women, a language he makes both playful and sensuous.
US Army Sgt Kyle Whalen, 22, playfully taps his helmet with an Iraqi boy's toy football helmet during a visit to the boy's school in Mosul.
And yet there is this kind of playfulness, which is a very destructive playfulness. The Inevitable Mr. Romney
Dappled by the fluid, playful light reflected from the canal below the vast leaded windows, a uniformed maid deals with sheaves of dead foliage from a small copse of indoor plants.
Not only does she like to be way off the ground, but her playful and booming laughter reverberates through any campground or room you might find her in.
While Stammberger's creativity was fabulous, mixed with his aesthetic and playful spirit was no small amount of self promotion and one-upmanship.
They playfully rode piggyback on their team-mates' shoulders, duelling each other with loaded bottles of champagne.
It contains many therianthropic creatures, who are both animal and human, and demonstrates the playfulness of the gods.
His playful frolics with foxes and bears show his lack of fear of the wild and disregard for his own safety.
His eyes were twinkling with mischief and a playful smile hovered on his lips.
Be light and playful, also eat light and remain free and unburdened.
We saw at least ten playful dolphins ducking and diving around our boat. The Sun
He playfully pulled my sleeve, drawing me into a hug.
It's a dance piece undertaking a playful examination of interpersonal dynamics.
Democracy had arrived in our country Spain and the most playful, hedonistic side of the Spanish character had exploded ... you could say that even grief was joyful ... thus the Baroque style, the humor and the colorfulness of the story and its characters. Patricia Zohn: CultureZohn: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
In our family he was the one that was playful, almost unruly, and often prankish. Times, Sunday Times
Looking at Rod McGehee's vivid, playful renderings of technicolor landscapes and curvaceous buildings, you'd never guess he once made a living painting photorealistic Western art.
While drag kings have become well-known in major metropolitan areas, not everyone has been able to explore their playful explorations of gender.
This is a magical piece of theatre, with a streak of engaging, sly humour and playfulness that takes you into a theatrical world where naturalism and expressionism, realism and surrealism sit side by side.
Her goal is also to create playful, original art that cannot be commodified.
As on earlier discs, he enlivens Caribbean traditions with masterful jazz piano, by turns clamorous, poignant, playful and even swinging.
The promise of the playful, magical world of advertisements is real inasmuch as consumers invest their own interpretations and desires in this consumerism.
Beneath the sheets, she cupped me and gave me a playful squeeze.
If a certain American countess had not patronized her; if certain lorgnettes (implements of torture used by said son of Satan) had not been leveled in her direction; if certain fans had not been suggestively spread between pairs of feminine heads, -- Nora would have been as harmless as a playful kitten. The Place of Honeymoons
The ending peters out inconclusively in a welter of playful/sloppy metafictional games.
He was sharp and hard hitting, tender and sincere, funny and mischievous, humble and playful, and just plain entertaining.
This is celebrated by a playful ritual in which the baby is given a number of gifts, such as a pencil and a pair of scissors.
I'm going to surprise mybelle-mère today — with a more playful spirit, tee-hee! — just you wait and see! Mother-in-law
On the contrary, it has a playful attraction to form, particularly rhyme and meter - in fact, the tighter the rules, and the more punctilious and arbitrary the enforcement, the happier nonsense is.

How To Use Playful In A Sentence

Report a problem

Please indicate a type of error

Additional information (optional):