as in hopping
to play and run about happily
carefree kids laughing and frisking about in their backyard
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Recent Examples of frisking
When the 12-year-old girl gets out of the car still holding her phone, the officer immediately starts frisking her.
—
Carol Thompson, CBS News, 22 Jan. 2026
Four dolphins appear to be frisking in the shallows at that location.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Apr. 2016
Carol Thompson, CBS News, 22 Jan. 2026
Four dolphins appear to be frisking in the shallows at that location.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Apr. 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for frisking
Verb
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Some are whimsical, like a handful of bunnies hopping on a trampoline.—
Lila Seidman,
Los Angeles Times,
2 May 2026
-
Spend a couple of days checking out Pike Place Market (don't miss a cup of mac and cheese from Beecher's), going to the top of the Space Needle, and visiting the Museum of Pop Culture before hopping aboard a ferry and getting away from it all.—
Evie Carrick,
Travel + Leisure,
2 May 2026
Verb
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But what’s equally important to him is seeing non-Iranians dancing to Iranian music.—
Nick Vivarelli,
Variety,
1 May 2026
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In a video shared on Instagram by Elite Event Robotics, a business that rents human-like robots for events, a child-sized robot could be seen dancing at a Southwest Airlines gate.—
Terry Castleman,
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2026
Verb
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The Diplomat, Slow Horses, and Paradise all feel like worthy nominees, but the fact that these three crowd-pleasing geopolitical conspiracy yarns have such overlap in their themes is going to keep any one of them from leaping ahead as a winner.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
2 May 2026
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The Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang has taken over a gargantuan room to house his 2006 piece Head On, consisting of 99 life-size sculptures of wolves leaping ferociously through the air.—
Lale Arikoglu,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 May 2026
Verb
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Still, Felder is optimistic that consumers would still buy a FiberMaxxing Smoothie or Power Meal Spinach Pineapple Smoothie, rather than skipping the drink or making it at home.—
Amelia Lucas,
CNBC,
1 May 2026
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Other experts argue that skipping a month of mowing can do more harm than good.—
Ryan Brennan,
Sacbee.com,
1 May 2026
Verb
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Okay, so the cow immediately finds its baby, and then there is a BABY COW gamboling in a field.—
Alice Burton,
Vulture,
23 Feb. 2026
-
Know Them By Their Fruits, for example, shows people and animals gamboling among fruit trees, and The Bermuda Triangle of Nacogdoches shows planes crashing into the ocean, in front of a plat of the landlocked town.—
Benjamin Lima
Special Contributor,
Dallas Morning News,
7 Feb. 2026
Verb
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All along the far side of the canyon, a cluster of dots began to wink on, like fireflies cavorting in a field.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
16 Mar. 2026
-
Just a few weeks earlier, Miguel Angel Garcia Medina, 31, had been cavorting with his four children at their Arlington, Texas, home, meeting his 8-year-old daughter for lunch at school and giddily planning the arrival of their fifth child.—
Rick Jervis,
USA Today,
22 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The outcome was one few anticipated, with Gray Davis romping to victory in the Democratic primary, then winning the governorship in a landslide.—
Mark Z. Barabak,
Mercury News,
28 Mar. 2026
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The outcome was one few anticipated, with Gray Davis romping to victory in the Democratic primary, then winning the governorship in a landslide.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Mar. 2026
Verb
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While frolicking among the rolling hills of Florence, Italy, Gwyneth Paltrow found a way to stay comfortable while still looking put-together.—
Izzy Baskette,
PEOPLE,
3 May 2026
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There was the Super Bowl-winning quarterback frolicking in trendy jammies.—
Lisa Gutierrez
May 2,
Kansas City Star,
2 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Frisking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/frisking. Accessed 8 May. 2026.
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