Sporophore noun [ Spore + Greek ... to bear.] (Botany) (a) A placenta. (b) That alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless numbers. In ferns it is the leafy plant, in mosses the capsule. Confer Oöphore .

Sporophoric adjective (Botany) Having the nature of a sporophore.

Sporophyte noun [ Spore + Greek ... plant.] (Botany) In plants exhibiting alternation of generations, the generation which bears asexual spores; -- opposed to gametophyte . It is not clearly differentiated in the life cycle of the lower plants. -- Spo`ro*phyt"ic adjective

Sporosac noun [ Spore + sac.] (Zoology) (a) A hydrozoan reproductive zooid or gonophore which does not become medusoid in form or structure. See Illust. under Athecata . (b) An early or simple larval stage of trematode worms and some other invertebrates, which is capable or reproducing other germs by asexual generation; a nurse; a redia.

Sporozoa noun plural [ New Latin , from Greek spo`ros a spore + zo^,on an animal.] (Zoology) An extensive division of parasitic Protozoa, which increase by sporulation. It includes the Gregarinida.

Sporozoid noun [ Spore + Gr . ... an animal .] (Botany) Same as Zoöspore .

Sporozoite noun (Zoology) In certain Sporozoa, a small active, usually elongate, sickle-shaped or somewhat amœboid spore, esp. one of those produced by division of the passive spores into which the zygote divides. The sporozoites reproduce asexually.

Sporran (spŏr"r a n) noun [ Gael. sporan .] A large purse or pouch made of skin with the hair or fur on, worn in front of the kilt by Highlanders when in full dress.

Sport (spōrt) noun [ Abbreviated frm disport .]
1. That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.

It is as sport a fool do mischief.

prov. x. 23.

Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.

Sir P. Sidney.

Think it but a minute spent in sport .

Shak.

2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision.

Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest.Shak.

3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about in play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.

Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind.

Dryden.

Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned pasions.

John Clarke.

4. Play; idle jingle.

An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause.

Broome.

5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing, racing, games, and the like, esp. when money is staked.

6. (Bot. & Zoology) 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. See Sporting plant , under Sporting .

7. A sportsman; a gambler. [ Slang]

In sport , in jest; for play or diversion. "So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport ?" Prov. xxvi. 19.

Syn. -- Play; game; diversion; frolic; mirth; mock; mockery; jeer.

Sport intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Sported ; present participle & verbal noun Sporting .]
1. To play; to frolic; to wanton.

[ Fish], sporting with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.

Milton.

2. To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.

3. To trifle. "He sports with his own life." Tillotson.

4. (Bot. & Zoology) 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. See Sport , noun , 6. Darwin.

Syn. -- To play; frolic; game; wanton.

Sport transitive verb
1. To divert; to amuse; to make merry; -- used with the reciprocal pronoun.

Against whom do ye sport yourselves?

Isa. lvii. 4.

2. To represent by any knd of play.

Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.

Dryden.

3. To exhibit, or bring out, in public; to use or wear; as, to sport a new equipage. [ Colloq.] Grose.

4. To give utterance to in a sportive manner; to throw out in an easy and copious manner; -- with off ; as, to sport off epigrams. Addison.

To sport one's oak . See under Oak , noun

Sportability noun Sportiveness. [ Obsolete]

Sportal adjective Of or pertaining to sports; used in sports. [ R.] " Sportal arms." Dryden.

Sporter noun One who sports; a sportsman.

As this gentleman and I have been old fellow sporters , I have a frienship for him.

Goldsmith.

Sportful adjective
1. Full of sport; merry; frolicsome; full of jesting; indulging in mirth or play; playful; wanton; as, a sportful companion.

Down he alights among the sportful herd.

Milton.

2. Done in jest, or for mere play; sportive.

They are no sportful productions of the soil.

Bentley.

-- Sport"ful*ly , adverb -- Sport"ful*ness , noun

Sporting adjective Of pertaining to, or engaging in, sport or sporrts; exhibiting the character or conduct of one who, or that which, sports.

Sporting book , a book containing a record of bets, gambling operations, and the like. C. Kingsley. -- Sporting house , a house frequented by sportsmen, gamblers, and the like. -- Sporting man , one who practices field sports; also, a horse racer, a pugilist, a gambler, or the like. -- Sporting plant (Botany) , a plant in which a single bud or offset suddenly assumes a new, and sometimes very different, character from that of the rest of the plant. Darwin.

Sportingly adverb In sport; sportively.

The question you there put, you do it, I suppose, but sportingly .

Hammond.

Sportive adjective Tending to, engaged in, or provocate of, sport; gay; froliscome; playful; merry.

Is it I
That drive thee from the sportive court?

Shak.

-- Sport"ive*ly , adverb -- Sport"ive*ness , noun

Sportless adjective Without sport or mirth; joyless.

Sportling noun A little person or creature engaged in sports or in play.

When again the lambkins play --
Pretty sportlings , full of May.

Philips.

Sportsman noun ; plural Sportsmen One who pursues the sports of the field; one who hunts, fishes, etc.

Sportsmanship noun The practice of sportsmen; skill in field sports.

Sportula noun ; plural Sportulæ [ Latin ] A gift; a present; a prize; hence, an alms; a largess.

To feed luxuriously, to frequent sports and theaters, to run for the sportula .

South.

Sportulary adjective Subsisting on alms or charitable contributions. [ Obsolete] Bp. Hall.

Sportule noun [ Latin sportula a little basket, a gift, dim. of sporta a basket: confer French sortule .] A charitable gift or contribution; a gift; an alms; a dole; a largess; a sportula. [ Obsolete] Ayliffe.

Sporulation noun (Biol.) The act or process of forming spores; spore formation. See Illust. of Bacillus, b .

Sporule noun [ Dim. of spore .] (Biol.) A small spore; a spore.

Sporuliferous adjective [ Sporule + -ferous .] (Biol.) Producing sporules.

Spot noun [ Confer Scot. & Dutch spat , Danish spette , Swedish spott spittle, slaver; from the root of English spit . See Spit to eject from the mouth, and confer Spatter .]
1. A mark on a substance or body made by foreign matter; a blot; a place discolored.

Out, damned spot ! Out, I say!

Shak.

2. A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish.

Yet Chloe, sure, was formed without a spot .

Pope.

3. A small part of a different color from the main part, or from the ground upon which it is; as, the spots of a leopard; the spots on a playing card.

4. A small extent of space; a place; any particular place. "Fixed to one spot ." Otway.

That spot to which I point is Paradise.

Milton.

"A jolly place," said he, "in times of old!
But something ails it now: the spot is cursed."

Wordsworth.

5. (Zoology) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above its beak.

6. (Zoology) (a) A sciænoid food fish ( Liostomus xanthurus ) of the Atlantic coast of the United States. It has a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. Called also goody , Lafayette , masooka , and old wife . (b) The southern redfish, or red horse, which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. See Redfish .

7. plural Commodities, as merchandise and cotton, sold for immediate delivery. [ Broker's Cant]

Crescent spot (Zoology) , any butterfly of the family Melitæidæ having crescent- shaped white spots along the margins of the red or brown wings. - - Spot lens (Microscopy) , a condensing lens in which the light is confined to an annular pencil by means of a small, round diaphragm (the spot ), and used in dark-field ilumination; -- called also spotted lens . -- Spot rump (Zoology) , the Hudsonian godwit ( Limosa hæmastica ). -- Spots on the sun . (Astron.) See Sun spot , ander Sun . -- On , or Upon , the spot , immediately; before moving; without changing place.

It was determined upon the spot .

Swift. Syn. -- Stain; flaw; speck; blot; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish; place; site; locality.

Spot transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Spotted ; present participle & verbal noun Spotting .]
1. To make visible marks upon with some foreign matter; to discolor in or with spots; to stain; to cover with spots or figures; as, to spot a garnment; to spot paper.

2. To mark or note so as to insure recognition; to recognize; to detect; as, to spot a criminal. [ Cant]

3. To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation; to asperse.

My virgin life no spotted thoughts shall stain.

Sir P. Sidney.

If ever I shall close these eyes but once,
May I live spotted for my perjury.

Beau. & Fl.

To spot timber , to cut or chip it, in preparation for hewing.

Spot intransitive verb To become stained with spots.

Spot adjective Lit., being on the spot, or place; hence (Com.) , on hand for immediate delivery after sale; -- said of commodities; as, spot wheat.

Spot cash (Com.) Cash paid or ready for payment at once upon delivery of property purchased.

Spot stroke (Eng. Billiards) The pocketing of the red ball in a top corner pocket from off its own spot so as to leave the cue ball in position for an easy winning hazard in either top corner pocket.

Spotless adjective Without a spot; especially, free from reproach or impurity; pure; untainted; innocent; as, a spotless mind; spotless behavior.

A spotless virgin, and a faultless wife.

Waller.

Syn. -- Blameless; unspotted; unblemished; pure; immaculate; irreproachable. See Blameless .

-- Spot"less*ly , adverb -- Spot"less*ness , noun

Spotlight noun The projected spot or circle of light used to illuminate brilliantly a single person or object or group on the stage; leaving the rest of the stage more or less unilluminated; hence, conspicuous public notice. [ Cant or Colloq.]

Spotted adjective Marked with spots; as, a spotted garment or character. "The spotted panther." Spenser.

Spotted fever (Medicine) , a name applied to various eruptive fevers, esp. to typhus fever and cerebro-spinal meningitis. -- Spotted tree (Botany) , an Australian tree ( Flindersia maculosa ); -- so called because its bark falls off in spots.

Spottedness noun State or quality of being spotted.

Spotter noun One who spots.

Spottiness noun The state or quality of being spotty.

Spotty adjective Full of spots; marked with spots.

Spousage noun [ Old French espousaige , from espouser . See Spouse , transitive verb ] Espousal. [ Obsolete] Bale.

Spousal adjective [ See Espousal , Sponsal , and Spouse .] Of or pertaining to a spouse or marriage; nuptial; matrimonial; conjugal; bridal; as, spousal rites; spousal ornaments. Wordsworth.

Spousal noun [ See Espousal , Spouse .] Marriage; nuptials; espousal; -- generally used in the plural; as, the spousals of Hippolita. Dryden.

Boweth your head under that blissful yoke . . .
Which that men clepeth spousal or wedlock.

Chaucer.

the spousals of the newborn year.

Emerson.

Spouse noun [ Old French espous , espos , fem. espouse , French époux , épouse , from Latin sponsus , sponsa , propast participle p. of spondere , sponsum , to promise solemnly, to engage one's self. Confer Despond , Espouse , respond , Sponsor .]
1. A man or woman engaged or joined in wedlock; a married person, husband or wife.

At last such grace I found, and means I wrought,
That that lady to my spouse had won.

Spenser.

2. A married man, in distinct from a spousess or married woman ; a bridegroom or husband. [ Obsolete]

At which marriage was [ were] no person present but the spouse , the spousess, the Duchess of Bedford her mother, the priest, two gentlewomen, and a young man.

Fabyan.

Spouse transitive verb [ See Espouse , and Spouse, noun ] To wed; to espouse. [ Obsolete]

This markis hath her spoused with a ring.

Chaucer.

Though spoused , yet wanting wedlock's solemnize.

Spenser.

She was found again, and spoused to Marinell.

Spenser.

Spouse-breach noun Adultery. [ Obsolete]

Spouseless adjective Destitute of a spouse; unmarried.

Spousess noun A wife or bride. [ Obsolete] Fabyan.