Word.ws English Dictionary

make sport of

UK/meɪ̯k spɔːɹt əv/US/meɪ̯k spoɹt əv/

make sport of verb: to make fun of someone or something.

Verb

make sport of (third-person singular simple present makes sport of, present participle making sport of, simple past and past participle made sport of)

  1. (idiomatic) To make fun of someone or something.
    • I never heard him say a hard word about anyone, and it visibly grieved him when the rest of us made sport of our schoolmates, especially those with hopes of being published in Troubadour.2003, Tobias Wolff, “Class Picture”, in Old School: a novel, 1st edition (fiction), quoted in Merriam-Webster, New York City, NY: Alfred A[braham]. Knopf, published 2003, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL...
    Synonyms:
    mock, ridicule, tease
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, sport, of.

Synonyms of make sport of

Forms of make sport of

third-person singular presentmakes sport of
present participlemaking sport of
past participlemade sport of
pastmade sport of

Questions about make sport of

What does make sport of mean?
Make sport of means to make fun of someone or something.
What part of speech is make sport of?
Make sport of is a verb.
How do you pronounce make sport of?
Make sport of is pronounced /meɪ̯k spɔːɹt əv/ (UK).
What is the past tense of make sport of?
The past tense of make sport of is made sport of.

Words near make sport of in the dictionary

  1. make someone's teeth itch
  2. make someone's toenails curl
  3. make someone's toes curl
  4. make something of
  5. make something of oneself
  6. make sport of
  7. make strange
  8. make streaks
  9. make strides
  10. make sure
  11. make terms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make sport of (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.

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