cavorting

[ kuh-vawr-ting ]

adjective

1. romping or capering playfully about; frolicking:

   Here you can see Arctic life up close—snowy owls, white foxes, cavorting polar bear cubs, and the amazing sled dogs.

2. behaving in a high-spirited, playful way:

   During a game of musical statues, the shy boy stood motionless in the middle of the cavorting group.

3. partying or behaving in an unrestrained way, often with the implication of sexual activity.

noun

1. the act of frolicking playfully about, behaving in a high-spirited or unrestrained way, or partying, often with the implication of sexual activity:

   Recent reports of drunken cavorting with a 19-year-old model have damaged the mayor’s squeaky-clean image.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cavorting¹

First recorded in 1835–45; cavort ( def ) + -ing ²( def ) for the adjective senses; cavort ( def ) + -ing ¹( def ) for the noun sense

Example Sentences

And after a week of juggling personal, professional and financial responsibilities, sometimes cavorting with singing pirates and dancing dolls simply takes the edge off.

From Los Angeles Times

The evening kicked off in raucous style with William Walter's Portsmouth Point - a spirited piece inspired by a seaside scene full of cavorting couples, drunken debauchery, a peg-legged fiddle player and a man wrestling a dog.

From BBC

The perennially under-construction compound, with its “oleander … and old milk cartons … R. Crumb comics, empty tea and coffee mugs, and ashtrays,” was often inhabited, Moon writes, by naked strangers “cavorting or making candles.”

From Los Angeles Times

Continuing the show's eye-rolling practice of cavorting through mystical Asian stereotypes, Master Kim's students train in a forest and, in 2024, he still lives in a hut.

From Salon

And after a week of juggling personal, professional and financial responsibilities, sometimes cavorting with singing pirates and dancing dolls simply takes the edge off.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• boisterous
• jaunty
• joyful
• joyous
• lighthearted
• merry
• spirited
• sprightly