Etimology
From Middle English sporten (verb) and sport, spoort, sporte (noun), apheretic shortenings of disporten (verb) and disport, disporte (noun). More at disport.
noun
sport (countable and uncountable, plural sports)
(countable) Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.
(countable) A person who exhibits either good or bad sportsmanship.
(countable) Somebody who behaves or reacts in an admirably good-natured manner, e.g. to being teased or to losing a game; a good sport.
(obsolete) That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
(obsolete) Mockery, making fun; derision.
(countable) A toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
(uncountable) Gaming for money as in racing, hunting, or fishing.
(biology, botany, zoology, countable) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. The term encompasses both mutants and organisms with non-genetic developmental abnormalities such as birth defects.
(slang, countable) A sportsman; a gambler.
(slang, countable) One who consorts with disreputable people, including prostitutes.
(obsolete, uncountable) An amorous dalliance.
(informal, usually singular) A friend or acquaintance (chiefly used when speaking to the friend in question)
Term of endearment used by an adult for a child, usually a boy.
(obsolete) Play; idle jingle.
Examples
Jen may have won, but she was sure a poor sport; she laughed at the loser.
The loser was a good sport, and congratulated Jen on her performance.
You're such a sport! You never get upset when we tease you.
Think it but a minute spent in sport.
Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.
The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hobby
Why then make ſport at me, then let me be your ieſt
flitting leaves, the sport of every wind
Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions.
We never shot another like it, so I do not know if it was a `sport' or a distinct species.
At Hortus Bulborum you will find heirloom narcissi that date back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like 'Duc van Tol' and its sports.
"Say, sport!" he would say briskly.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:friend
Hey, sport! You've gotten so big since I saw you last! Give me five.
An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage […] would meet with small applause.
verb
sport (third-person singular simple present sports, present participle sporting, simple past and past participle sported)
(intransitive) To amuse oneself, to play.
(intransitive) To mock or tease, treat lightly, toy with.
(transitive) To display; to have as a notable feature.
(reflexive) To divert; to amuse; to make merry.
(transitive) To represent by any kind of play.
To practise the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal.
(transitive, archaic) To close (a door).
Examples
children sporting on the green
Jen sports with Bill's emotions.
He sports with his own life.
Jen's sporting a new pair of shoes; he was sporting a new wound from the combat
But despite its plague of tunnels, the run-in on this route is of unusual interest to the locomotive enthusiast: besides the hordes of self-important saddle-tanks shunting in the extensive yards, there was at one time the chance of seeing those slender little North London engines, with their large outside cylinders and no visible storage place for coal, and also an occasional South Eastern locomotive sporting a lot of polished brass.
[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
He was especially happy to see one of the most important discoveries make it to the screen: dinosaurs that sported feathers. But judging from the emails he has been receiving, some moviegoers did not share his excitement.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.
more than one kind of rose has sported into a moss
There he locked it up in a drawer, sported the doors of both sets of rooms, and retired to bed.