cavort

verb

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ca·vort | \ kə-ˈvȯrt

cavorted; cavorting; cavorts

Definition of cavort

intransitive verb

1 : to leap or dance about in a lively manner Otters cavorted in the stream.

2 : to engage in extravagant behavior The governor has been criticized for cavorting with celebrities.

Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More About cavort

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Examples of cavort in a Sentence

Otters cavorted in the stream. children cavorting on the first sunny day of spring

Recent Examples on the Web Fairies dance in the shadow of a New Hampshire forest, and peasant children cavort amid the greenery of Brookline’s Larz Anderson Park. — BostonGlobe.com, 19 May 2021 The dream there is to create another Marvel-like universe of characters who could cavort across different platforms. — Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2020 In the QAnon imagination, Democrats and celebrities commingle in orgies of bloodlust, while demons of the figurative and literal variety cavort their way to supreme intoxication. — Talia Lavin, The New Republic, 29 Sep. 2020 Not one folding chair, bar-b-que pit or beer cooler was to be seen beneath the highway ramps, where clusters of black and gold-clad revelers usually cavort on game days. — Doug Maccash | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 13 Sep. 2020 Will the occasional drudgery of the season prove too strong for a young, athletic and seemingly invincible man to blow off some steam at Top Golf, let alone cavort in a crowded nightclub? — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 28 June 2020 Like others, Kimmel slammed young people on spring break in Florida, cavorting on the beach and ignoring social distancing guidelines. — oregonlive, 21 Mar. 2020 The duped ruler in this production isn’t going to cavort in tighty whities (or less). — Laurel Graeber, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2020 On Sunday, the Masked One took the opportunity to cavort with Mobile’s mermaids: Neptune’s Daughters. — al, 24 Feb. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cavort.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for cavort

earlier also cauvaut, cavault, covault, of obscure origin

Note: All early attestations of the word are North American, the first known (as cauvauted) in a letter written by the North Carolina politician John Steele in April, 1794. Various etymologies have been suggested: that the word is altered from curvet entry 1; that it is comprised of the unstressed expressive prefix ca- (as in caboodle) and vault entry 3; that it has some relation with French chahuter "to dance the chahut (a boisterous, somewhat indecent dance), to make an uproar" (see Leo Spitzer, "Cavort," Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 48 (1949), pp. 132-37). Apparently the same word is cavaulting "coition" in John Camden Hotten's A Dictionary of Modern, Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (London, 1859). In the second edition of Hotten's dictionary (London, 1860) the word has the etymological note "Lingua Franca, cavolta," though there appears to be no evidence for such a word in Lingua Franca.