> as lemmas

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Prov. xxvi. C I dyd it but in sporte.

a1577 Ferrers in G. Gascoigne Princelie Pleasures Kenelworth sig. A.iij, in Whole Wks. (1587) And as my loue to Arthure dyd appeere, so shalt to you in earnest and in sport.

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) i. ii. 26 Loue no man in good earnest, nor no further in sport neyther, then [etc.] . View more context for this quotation

1668 P. M. To Author of Ephesian Matron sig. H, in W. Charleton Ephesian & Cimmerian Matrons Having in sport thrown you into the river, and finding you unable to bear up against the impetuous torrent of Feminine prejudice,..I am resolved to leap in after.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa VII. xc. 331 I should be sorry, if I could not say, that what you have warned me of in sport, makes me tremble in earnest.

1785 W. Cowper Task ii. 369 He doubtless is in sport, and does but droll.

1829 Chapters Physical Sci. 317 The inexhaustible variety of shades which nature, as in sport, has diffused over the surface of different bodies.

1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. v. xvi. 299 I have assumed that the name was given by Gentiles, and given more or less in sport.

1910 W. Boyle Mineral Workers iv. 99 You asked me if I knew anyone who hated Mr. O'Reilly hot enough to lend you money. I suggested her—in sport.

1951 R. Graves Poems & Satires (1997) 192 Let them not whisper, even in sport: ‘His Majesty's turned parsimonious And keeps no whore now but his Consort’.

1988 D. Smyth Guide Irish Mythol. 88 He said in sport, ‘Deirdre, the look of a ewe between two rams is that look thou givest me and Eogan.’