Link Centre Dictionary

spry

UK/spɹaɪ/ US/ˈspraɪ/ rare

adjective

1.

moving quickly and lightly

  • “sleek and agile as a gymnast”
  • “as nimble as a deer”
  • “nimble fingers”
  • “quick of foot”
  • “the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From British dialectal sprey, from Old Norse sprækr (“nimble, lively”) from Proto-Germanic *sprēkiz (“lively”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)preg- (“to strew, jerk, sprinkle, scatter”). Cognate with Icelandic sprækur (“lively, spry”), Norwegian sprek (“lively, healthy”), dialectal Swedish sprygg (“brisk, very active, skittish”). More at spark. Related to sprack, sprig, sprug, freckle.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.