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Webster 1913 Edition


Peart

Peart

(pērt)
,
Adj.
[A variant of
pert
,
Adj.
]
Active; lively; brisk; smart; – often applied to convalescents;
as, she is quite
peart
to-day
.
[O. Eng. & Colloq. U. S.]
There was a tricksy girl, I wot, albeit clad in gray,
As
peart
as bird, as straight as bolt, as fresh as flowers in May.
Warner (1592).

Definition 2024


peart

peart

English

Adjective

peart (comparative more peart, superlative most peart)

  1. (Britain, US, in dialects) Lively; active.
    • 1586, William Warner, Albion's England, Booke VI, Chapter XXXI, 1810, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume IV, page 579,
      There was a tricksie girle, I wot, // Albeit clad in gray, / As peart as bird, as straite as boult, // As fresh as flower in May.
    • 1856, Alice Carey, Married, not Mated; Or, How they lived at Woodside and Throckmorton Hall, page 109,
      I smiled; and she went on to say I looked a little more peart; maybe I would not be such a slow coach after all.
    • 1893, Lynde Palmer, A Question of Honour, page 88,
      " [] No young man could 'a' ben more peart and alive than that, Dotty."
    • 1979, Marguerite Noble, Filaree: A Novel of an American Life, 1985, page 109,
      "Yore pa don't hold to card playin' but you needs to have quiet and rest. I'm pleased to see Annie's up to playin'. Baby looks a little more peart this mornin' too."