cavort

verb

ca·​vort kə-ˈvȯrt 

cavorted; cavorting; cavorts

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

• dance
• gambol
• frolic
• hop
• romp
• leap
• skip
• rollick
• tumble
• caper
• revel
• lark

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

Inevitably, the moment that Margarita spies a hobby horsing class cavorting around a room in the local middle school will likely have a profound effect on the film’s audience. —Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 10 June 2025

In a space formerly occupied by the finance ministry, a towering glass ceiling shelters statues that once cavorted in open courtyards. —Caity Weaver, The Atlantic, 5 June 2025

Masked protesters, dancing and cavorting around burning American flags. —James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2025

Studying dust devils is about more than the wow factor of these wild whirlwinds cavorting across the landscape. —Amanda Kooser, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

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.

First Known Use

1794, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for cavort

• abort
• airport
• alport
• athwart
• carport
• comport
• consort
• deport
• distort
• escort
• exhort
• extort

Kids Definition

cavort

verb

ca·​vort kə-ˈvȯ(ə)rt 

: to leap or dance about in a lively manner