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

• caper
• disport
• frisk
• frolic
• gambol
• lark
• rollick
• romp
• sport

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

Celebrities regularly cavorted in Tramp, the glitzy nightclub that first made a splash in London’s Mayfair in 1969. —Alia Akkam, Architectural Digest, 28 Oct. 2024

Drummers beat time, firecrackers burst and fizz, and demons cavort and dance. —Matt Ralphs, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Oct. 2024

Neil Mockford Kate Moss was particularly into the look: a cursory search through Getty Images will reveal hundreds of images of the model cavorting around London with silk things knotted at the chest like a charming Left-Bank babe. —Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 27 Sep. 2024

Underwater Jetpack This sleek electric jetpack delivers effortless, dolphin-like diving, spinning, and cavorting at nine feet per second. —J. George Gorant, Robb Report, 7 Sep. 2024

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

Kids Definition

cavort

verb

ca·​vort kə-ˈvȯ(ə)rt 

: to leap or dance about in a lively manner