How To Use Sprightly In A Sentence
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Stiff Little Fingers, man, that's the way to start a label," enthuses the teenager, breaking into a sprightly and not unimpressive a capella rendition of the Irish punk‑band's 1978 debut single, Suspect Device.
Howler: Ransacking rock'n'roll
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Two examples, from her impressive "Transformation" disc, are the pianist's soulful performance of Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in F Minor and her sprightly, exceptionally characterful transversal of Igor Stravinsky's Three Movements From "Petrushka," a transcription based on his ballet score.
The Fast and the Serious
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I envisioned a young squirt of an elf, say just a sprightly 100 or 200 years, slipping out to meet his miscreant pals, grab a leaf and ride a wind current.
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Even if linked to a typically American automatic gearbox of only four speeds, it has sprightly performance.
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But would these sprightly veterans have been better advised to avoid the stresses and strains of full-time toil in old age?
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Among his other servants he had a young man called Pyrrhus, who was sprightly and well bred and comely of his person and adroit in all that he had a mind to do, and him he loved and trusted over all else.
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
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It was the least Blackpool deserved for their sprightly first-half performance.
Times, Sunday Times
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None of the youngsters made long-winded speeches, but they said it all through sprightly dances that were a celebration of life and an exhibition of talent.
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Moiseyev has added a few new dances, at least new to New York, including a hilarious sailor's dance called A Day on Board a Ship, as well as adaptations from Venezuela and Argentina and a sprightly Spanish jota.
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Peter Manso: erm, I was using "sprightly" as a compliment - as in, "energetic" etc.
Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister?
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“Oh, I dunno,” says our informant, another sprightly juvenile, modishly clad in jellaba, brass-buttoned jacket, and pirate head-scarf.
Flashman on the March
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It was the least Blackpool deserved for their sprightly first-half performance.
Times, Sunday Times
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On the other hand, the mother, a sprightly nonagenarian, acquitted herself well in the interview, and both she and Ann came across as ‘better’ people as a result.
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His "Levities" are by their title exempted from the severities of criticism, yet it may be remarked in a few words that his humour is sometimes gross, and seldom sprightly.
Johnson's Lives of the Poets — Volume 2
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Yesterday, the 33-year-old looked decidedly sprightly for his age.
Times, Sunday Times
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The Party's central organ, once the epitome of dullness, has had to brighten itself up to compete against more sprightly daily newspapers.
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A sprightly woman wrings her hands as if flirtatiously sizing up a fellow resident at the nursing home.
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The final movements weren't unpleasing, either: muscular and sprightly, yet not grating.
Times, Sunday Times
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A covey of sprightly grey partridge look back and trundle on.
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He is at ease with his age - a sprightly 64.
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“Doubt not me, Catherine,” replied the Queen; “a while since I was overborne, but I have recalled the spirit of my earlier and more sprightly days, when I used to accompany my armed nobles, and wish to be myself a man, to know what life it was to be in the fields with sword and buckler, jack, and knapscap.”
The Abbot
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It was expertly pruned last year and is now a gnarled but very sprightly old lady, full of fruit.
Times, Sunday Times
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Part I began with a swinging overture and maintained sprightly tempi and bright colors throughout, befitting the optimism of its subject: the annunciation of the birth of Christ.
Tracing the Gospel With Renewed Vigor and Drama
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The housemaids had been bribed with various fragments of riband, and sundry pairs of shoes more or less down at heel, to make no mention of crumbs in the beds; the airiest costumes had been worn on these festive occasions; and the daring Miss Ferdinand had even surprised the company with a sprightly solo on the comb – and – curlpaper, until suffocated in her own pillow by two flowing – haired executioners.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
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A delicious, sprightly chardonnay with lots of ripe, appley fruit.
Times, Sunday Times
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Miss Harris is pretty sprightly and talks faster than anyone I've met out here in the land of the slow drawl.
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Boasting that its uniforms, methods, and attitudes make it stand out in a food court of banality, the franchise founded in 1946 at Muscle Beach, Santa Monica, spares no humiliation when dandifying its always smiling, sprightly employees. website, Hot Dog on a Stick's uniforms were inspired by a quirky 1960's trend that saw jockey caps and hot pants in fashion.
Minyanville
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It's all well-played by the Northern Sinfonia under James Sinclair, and the music is sprightly and often engaging, but a lot of it is tricksy stuff, full of little efforts at musical humour or attention grabbing.
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The tender sprig is not likely to prosper under the influence of the tree which attracts its nurture; applies that nurture to itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are the most powerful -- An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as opposite as the antipodes.
An History of Birmingham (1783)
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The place was doing sprightly business on a random Thursday night in autumn and the staff are fantastically well informed and very relaxed.
Times, Sunday Times
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It was expertly pruned last year and is now a gnarled but very sprightly old lady, full of fruit.
Times, Sunday Times
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By this time I had my black wardrobe more or less together, and had learned not to say, “Well, hi there!” in sprightly tones.
Margaret atwood | waterstone’s poetry lecture « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground
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a sprightly dance
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A PM can start a term resembling a sprightly pup, full of vim, but end it looking like the human equivalent of a Labrador whose back legs have gone.
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He writes again in the morning to say that he's feeling much more sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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As an old man of 75, he is surprisingly sprightly.
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Climene, was moved almost to tears by the hard fate which through four long acts kept her from the hungering arms of the so beautiful Leandre, howled its delight over the ignominy of Pantaloon, the buffooneries of his sprightly lackey Harlequin, and the thrasonical strut and bellowing fierceness of the cowardly Rhodomont.
Scaramouche
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She is 67 now, but sprightly with a fierce, restless energy.
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Consequently, the diesel feels decidedly sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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It is only the very small works, some with just half a dot on a tiddly canvas, that have a more sprightly, human feel.
Full circle: the endless attraction of Damien Hirst's spot paintings
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Is your once sprightly PC now grinding slowly along?
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It is not many yeares since (worthy assembly) that in Bulloigne there dwelt a learned Physitian, a man famous for skill, and farre renowned, whose name was Master Albert, and being growne aged, to the estimate of threescore and tenne yeares: hee had yet such a sprightly disposition, that though naturall heate and vigour had quite shaken hands with him, yet amorous flames and desires had not wholly forsaken him.
The Decameron
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To frame a system which shall suit the condition of our country and the genius of its government, which shall develop the faculties of the mind and improve the good dispositions of the heart; which shall embrace in its views the rich and the poor, the dull and the sprightly is a work of great magnitude and requires details to give it efficacy, which the little time allowed to your committee
The Beginnings of Public Education in North Carolina; A Documentary History, 1790-1840. Vol. I
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Nor was he ever really himself until he felt the mellow warmth of the vine singing in his blood He was an artist, it is true, always an artist; but somehow, sober the high pitch and lilt went out of his thought-processes and he was prone to be as deadly dull as a British Sunday — not dull as other men are dull, but dull when measured by the sprightly wight that
WHEN GOD LAUGHS
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But still Villa were sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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A single musician played a sprightly tune on a curious stringed instrument with two necks.
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Walking around the area, it's easy to spot many of the sprightly older generation.
The Sun
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Yesterday, the 33-year-old looked decidedly sprightly for his age.
Times, Sunday Times
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The flesh is a little coarse, very juicy, sprightly, subacid, and desirable for either dessert or culinary uses.
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The singer has an even, rounded tone, an apposite feeling for ornament and an ability to phrase with sprightly elegance.
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Her Majesty looked sprightly on Monday night as she resumed public duties after her recent spell in hospital.
Times, Sunday Times
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His sprightly frame is totally erect with not a hint of a stoop and his quick stride and purposeful gait would put men half his age to shame.
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Something deep in the soul feels sprightly at this time of year.
Times, Sunday Times
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Part I began with a swinging overture and maintained sprightly tempi and bright colors throughout, befitting the optimism of its subject: the annunciation of the birth of Christ.
Tracing the Gospel With Renewed Vigor and Drama
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Through her fingers, the piece turns sprightly even before the tala (rhythmic section) leaps in.
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Olivia, now about eighteen, had that luxuriancy of beauty with which painters generally draw Hebe; open, sprightly, and commanding.
The Vicar of Wakefield
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The new thrift plant in its small terracotta planter looks as if it'd been there all its life - erect and sprightly, just as it should be.
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Took his chances well and always looked sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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His lover, Mercedes, is a sprightly dancer who would have benefited from a brighter costume.
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They knew there was a lot more to this warm, witty, sparkly and sprightly show than just the title song.
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Among the 15th- to 16th-century blue-and-white stoneware, a dish features a sprightly deer scampering along a river and a jar teems with needlefish darting in and out of seaweed.
Vietnamese Vessels for the Heart and Soul
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It was all "sprightly" -- that was Murray's tone -- but also it was cordial; and it referred to Thyrsis 'earlier novel, "The Hearer of Truth", as "that brilliant piece of work".
Love's Pilgrimage
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A little flock of these titmice came daily to pick a dinner out of my wood pile, or the crumbs at my door, with faint flitting lisping notes, like the tinkling of icicles in the grass, or else with sprightly _day day day_, or more rarely, in spring-like days, a wiry summery _phe-be_ from the wood-side.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7
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If you be Sir _Harry Sprightly_, my Grand-Mother will be very angry when she hears how these Fellows ha 'daub'd my Cloaths.
The Fine Lady's Airs (1709)
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A single musician played a sprightly tune on a curious stringed instrument with two necks.
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I like to think that the sprightly wit and defiant attitude are typical of McCay himself.
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Decorations often take up quite a bit of time at home, but the experts do it in a jiffy, for they have a range of colourful festoons and sprightly buntings in stock, all ready to be hung up at the party venue.
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Whereon a sprightly devilkin seized hurriedly upon his soul and was on the point of bearing it away to Hell, when an angel (mindful doubtless of the abbey's piety) arrived, objecting with a nicely argued piece of logic that the sacristan had not been carried off "en male veie," but before any sin had been committed.
The Story of Rouen
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Her Majesty looked sprightly on Monday night as she resumed public duties after her recent spell in hospital.
Times, Sunday Times
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Small, roll-up curtains reveal four colorful rooms behind the facade, one each for the preening stepsisters Clorinda and Tisbe downstairs, and two upstairs for their harrumphing father Don Magnifico, the down-at-heel Baron of Montefiascone, while sweet and sprightly Angelina gets the cinders and the scullery in the middle.
'La Cenerentola' Sparkles on the Paris Stage
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Their first piece was a sprightly Mozart contradance-fast, but not too fast, with a French horn solo in the middle that Lisa choked on half the time, even in yesterday's dress rehearsal.
Beyond World's End
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To call Capote's profile of Brando "sprightly" is not too bright; if anything, this is the best single short piece of its kind, plus which Capote performed the near-impossible -- he got the normally guarded Brando to open up.
Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister?
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His sprightly frame is totally erect with not a hint of a stoop and his quick stride and purposeful gait would put men half his age to shame.
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When Lucy, a sprightly waitress with a song on her lips and in her heart, meets Adam, she gives up her ‘man-izing’ ways and wants to settle down.
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Though the Man of Sorrows is supposed to be dead, depictions can range anywhere from complete lifelessness to sprightly vitality.
The Man of Sorrows Motif Over Time
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a sprightly young girl
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It's the kind of wholesome, hearty food you'd make at home, if you were inclined to grind your own spicy sausage and dish it up in a garlicky broth of white beans and sprightly greens, with a couple crunchy crostini to sop up the juice.
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He writes again in the morning to say that he's feeling much more sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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Consequently, the diesel feels decidedly sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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A sprightly Cancan performance by a Russian team and the graceful ballet movements of the Vladimir-Natasha duo had the audience spell-bound.
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Coordination between pit and stage is very good, and the tempi are usually sprightly.
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It always feels eager and sprightly, and that makes you feel eager and sprightly too.
Times, Sunday Times
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As a sprightly comedy this show fills the bill.
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The architectural style of Dongying is simple and sprightly, exhibiting its unique rhythm of urban construction.
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He looked as lively and sprightly as ever despite now being in his mid forties.
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Known for her "sprightly" comedies, Centlivre published a total of 19 plays in her lifetime, including The Busy Body (1709) and The
Editorial Notes to 'Letter to the Women of England'
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Seldom has this piece seemed so fleet of foot, so light and sprightly in its levitating dance.
Times, Sunday Times
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Something deep in the soul feels sprightly at this time of year.
Times, Sunday Times
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On the road, this proved to be a particularly nippy car about town, pulling off from junctions with a sprightly performance.
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The place was doing sprightly business on a random Thursday night in autumn and the staff are fantastically well informed and very relaxed.
Times, Sunday Times
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Even steel, which Indiana makes more of than any other state, has stayed sprightly.
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He's surprisingly sprightly for an old man.
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The sprightly, grey-haired woman, it seems, meets everyone who walks in the door with the same enthusiastic greeting.
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The approach pays dividends in lending the film a sprightly air and making it accessible to all as it gallops through events.
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“Mr. Longman,” said my lady, assuming a sprightly air, although her eye twinkled, to keep within its lids the precious water, that sprang from a noble and well-affected heart,
Pamela
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Indeed, he made his television debut in the series at the sprightly age of 75.
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‘We say that the day you don't think about falling, you will fall,’ says Corinne Pierre, a sprightly French-Canadian acrobat.
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The place was doing sprightly business on a random Thursday night in autumn and the staff are fantastically well informed and very relaxed.
Times, Sunday Times
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At 29, he isn't exactly young by modern standards of professional sport; on the other hand golf is not regarded as a sport for sprightly geriatrics for nothing.
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Be warned that the gentle pizza bread that arrives at all tables, along with a sprightly pesto dip, can ruin your appetite for the pizza to come.
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The sprightly energumen lives and breathes his words on the stage for 53 minutes.
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And therefore, if you know your selfe, not to be of a constant courage, and sprightly bold, to undertake such an adventure as this: never presume any further, because you may doe us a great deale of injurie, without any gaine or benefite to your selfe, but rather such wrong, as we would be very sorry should happen unto so deere a
The Decameron
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The four-part chorale is presented first sans pedal in Movement I; Movement II is a sprightly voluntary in ABA form, which serves as the framework for an embellished version of the hymn tune in its midsection.
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Melodies and countermelodies courtesy of several sprightly instruments cross over each other on ‘Hemipode,’ which also features cooing vocals that only enhance its courteous gait.
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MY beloved daughter imposes on me a task, which however agreeable to myself, may not, perhaps be entirely so to you; as the cold inanimate prolixity of an old woman, will form a great contrast between her descriptions, and that of so sprightly and elegant a penwoman as Mrs. Butler: you must however, accept of my wish to indulge her, and gratify you; and take matter for manner.
Agnes De-Courci: a Domestic Tale
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Christie's most under-rated recurring characters are a sprightly young couple recently demobbed from the First World War forces and in search of a distraction from their tedious new lives.
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When we meet, he looks sprightly enough, but his sensibility is that of a quieter time.
Times, Sunday Times
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Their sprightly melodies, debonnaire steps, the fanciful figure of their dances, with the tasteful and capricious manner in which the girls adjusted their simple dress, gave a character to the scene entirely French.
The Mysteries of Udolpho
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When we meet, he looks sprightly enough, but his sensibility is that of a quieter time.
Times, Sunday Times
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Small but vital: She hasn't thrown a shoe at me yet for calling her "sprightly," but maybe she should.
Archive 2008-12-01
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Seldom has this piece seemed so fleet of foot, so light and sprightly in its levitating dance.
Times, Sunday Times
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Walking around the area, it's easy to spot many of the sprightly older generation.
The Sun
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Took his chances well and always looked sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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In a sprightly 5-4 decision, Supreme Court Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote that Woo's practical joke was an integral, if odd, part of the assistant's dental surgery and "conceivably" should trigger the professional liability coverage of his policy....
Archive 2007-07-01
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Mellow and fluent though they be, the utterances are not indicative of gladsomeness nor of a sprightly disposition; nor are they songs.
Last Leaves from Dunk Island
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But still Villa were sprightly.
Times, Sunday Times
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The letters contain many particulars of her life, together with many anecdotes hitherto unknown or forgotten, told with a saucy vivacity which is charming, and an air vividly recalling the sprightly, arch demeanour, and black, sparkling eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre.
Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete
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How different _this table_ from many others! where genteel sprightly conversations are shut out; _where_ such as cannot feast their senses on the genius of a _cook_, must rise unsatisfied.
Barford Abbey
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One was calm, one vivacious, the other playful and sprightly - all lost in their own world of innocence.
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Most people find the juice or jelly from the Concord grape quite sprightly and delicious.
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It always feels eager and sprightly, and that makes you feel eager and sprightly too.
Times, Sunday Times
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Sprightly angels support Francoise's massive, floating, upright heraldic device, while mournful lions stoop to stabilize Louis's drooping shield.
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The speed of the bison was outstripped by that of the spirits; the wings of the wild turkey and soland-goose could not convey them out of the reach of the sprightly inhabitants of the City of Souls.
Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3)
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I'm just reading between the lines, but he looked pretty sprightly and pretty spiffy there, you know, at 91.
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He looked as lively and sprightly as ever despite now being in his mid forties.
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Arthur does not slip easily into introspection, he is too sprightly a personality for deep contemplation.
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He was sprightly, inquisitive, interesting and, in some respects, representative of the other passengers.
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There was an amusing final theatrical flourish from the Conservative candidate, John Taylor, a sprightly 63-year-old.