cavort
UK/kəˈvɔːt//kəˈvɔɹt/
cavort verb: to prance, frolic, gambol.
Verb
cavort (third-person singular simple present cavorts, present participle cavorting, simple past and past participle cavorted)
- To prance, frolic, gambol.
- […] when the young man whirled his horse, “hazed” Jupiter in circles and belaboured him with a rawhide quirt, […] He ceased his cavortings […]1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter I, in The Understanding Heart
- To move about carelessly, playfully or boisterously.
- And dragon-flies sported around and cavorted, / As poets say dragon-flies ought to do; […]1900, Guy Wetmore Carryl, “The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet”, in Mother Goose for Grownups
- He whirligigged and pirouetted, dancing and cavorting round like an inebriated ape.1911, Jack London, “Chapter XI”, in The Cruise of the Snark
- To engage in extravagant pursuits, especially of a sexual nature.
- As he moves back into the shadows, the stage is taken over by a troupe of Pan-like dancers, leaping and cavorting in an obscene ballet.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 94
- We can't even write stories about moguls like Rupert Murdoch or Barry Diller unless it involves photographs of them cavorting with young flesh.2014, Astra Taylor, quoting James Fallows, The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN
cavort meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
cavort in Urdu
- cavort
- اترا کر چلنا itra kar calnā
cavort in Malayalam
- skip, dance, romp
- ആവേശത്തോടെ ഓടിച്ചാടി നടക്കുക, തുള്ളിക്കളിക്കുക, ചാടിത്തുള്ളുക, തിന്തക്കം തുള്ളുക, തിന്തക്കം ആടുക, ചാടിത്തുള്ളിക്കളിക്കുക
cavort in Kannada
- ಕುಣಿದಾಡು
Examples of cavort in a sentence
- […]and soon a high-spirited snowball fight was being waged by dozens of happy, hyperkinetic boys cavorting in dungarees and T-shirts, in sweatsuits, in pajamas, even some in only underwear.2008, Philip Roth, Indignation:
- They cavorted by the hundreds in streams.2020 June 26, Ceylan Yeginsu, “Lockdown? What Lockdown? Heat Wave Brings Britons Out in Droves”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- […] while a woman in a bright red coat cavorts through a crosswalk with what appears to be an impeccably groomed Afghan hound.2021 February 24, Nicholas Kulish, “When Influencers Make Fools of Themselves”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Synonyms of cavort
Forms of cavort
| third-person singular present | cavorts |
|---|---|
| present participle | cavorting |
| past participle | cavorted |
| past | cavorted |
Origin of cavort
Originated in the United States in 1793, as cauvaut, applying to horses, probably from the colloquial intensifying prefix ca-/ka- + vault (“jump, leap”); later generalized. Early sources connect it to cavault, a term for a certain demeanor of horses. Alternatively, a variation of curvet.
Words formed from cavort
Words that rhyme with cavort
44 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- export
- mort
- assort
- escort
- fort
- quart
- resort
- retort
- thwart
- wart
- comport
- detort
- distort
- extort
- swart
- transport
- apport
- come short
- consort
- contort
- desport
- ort
- purport
- reimport
- tort
- accourt
- aport
- asnort
- asport
- bort
- coreport
- Crown Court
- dort
- exhort
- Isle aux Morts
- kangaroo court
- misreport
- reexport
- rereport
- rort
- skort
- spoilsport
- torte
- worrywart
Questions about cavort
- What does cavort mean?
- Cavort means to prance, frolic, gambol.
- What is cavort in Urdu?
- Cavort in Urdu is اترا کر چلنا (itra kar calnā). See Cavort meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use cavort in a sentence?
- […]and soon a high-spirited snowball fight was being waged by dozens of happy, hyperkinetic boys cavorting in dungarees and T-shirts, in sweatsuits, in pajamas, even some in only underwear.
- What part of speech is cavort?
- Cavort is a verb.
- How do you pronounce cavort?
- Cavort is pronounced /kəˈvɔːt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of cavort?
- The past tense of cavort is cavorted.
Words near cavort in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cavort (page history and authors); اترا کر چلنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); cavort (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); cavort (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cavort.ogg, en-au-cavort.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cavort.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cavort. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.