Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CAVORT

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connect today's word to others: With most of the words we check out together, we can trace their family histories, find their cousins, sketch out their pedigrees pretty clearly. With cavort, though, no one can prove where it came from. Like an uninvited but peppy party guest, "cavort" brings the fun. It's a colorful alternative to "play," "romp," "caper" and so on. See if you can recall this other lively, active, fun-packed word: c___m. It means "to smack into something and then rebound." (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "CAVORT" When a horse cavorts, it's prancing around playfully. More generally, to cavort is to play in a fun, happy, often noisy way. Pronunciation: kuh VORT Part of speech: Intransitive verb. (Like "sleep," "skydive," and "succeed," all intransitive verbs show complete action on their own and do not do action to an object. You sleep, you skydive, you succeed, and that’s it. You don’t "sleep a bed," "skydive a plane," or "succeed a plan." Likewise, something or someone cavorts.) Other forms: cavorted, cavorting, cavortish (rare) How to use it: Talk about kids, tourists, athletes, party-goers, birds, dolphins, etc. who cavort. Or get figurative and say that things like these are cavorting: thoughts, ideas, memories, nature, luck, the stock market, etc. We often follow "cavort" with a preposition. You can cavort for a certain length of time, cavort with other people, cavort in, at, through, across, or around a place, and so on.  And of course, you can do all of that figuratively: "he's cavorting with the truth," "we cavorted through the song," "she's cavorting across her memories," "they're cavorting around the rules." examples: Friday nights meant cavorting at the skating rink: showing off our jelly bracelets, swapping neon candies, singing and laughing as we zipped way too fast around the rink. Instead of sticking to a plodding outline for this paper, she tried following the free cavorting of her thoughts. study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "cavort" means when you can explain it without saying "prance" or "caper." try it out: Think of a playful or imaginative song, show, movie, poem, story, or book that you like. Fill in the blanks: "In (Title), (one quality) cavort(s) with (another quality)." Example: "In 'Candy By the Pound,' images of grapes, wine, candy, and rain on a roof cavort with the sound of a synthesizer." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. This month, we're playing with The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. It's a collection of silly, sarcastic, satirical definitions of everyday words, and--lucky us!--it's in the public domain. In each issue this month, I'll give you one of Bierce's definitions and, if it's a tough one, I'll give you the word's first letter. And you try to come up with the word. From our previous issue: Bierce defines it as "a detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one’s neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star." It's a noun. It starts with R. What is it? Answer: Responsibility. Try this today: Bierce defines it as "a machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him." It's a noun. It starts with C. What is it? review today's word: 1. One opposite of CAVORTING is A. SOLEMN B. FREEING C. EXPANDING 2. We watched with _____ as our kids cavorted _____. A. delight .. on the sand B. horror .. onto the school bus C. pride .. onto the stage, silent and orderly and poised Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. A