spry
/sprʌɪ
/adjective (spryer, spryest)
(Especially of an old person) active; lively: he continued to look spry and active well into his eighties...
- She is so spry, alert, and enthusiastic that it is difficult to imagine you are talking to a woman in her sixties.
- James Henry Clark is pretty spry for a man whose caddie career began in the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and has spanned eight decades.
- A small, spry woman of about sixty, she works as a home care nurse.
Synonyms
sprightly, lively, energetic, active, full of life, full of energy, vigorous, spirited, animated, vivacious, playful, jaunty, perky, frisky, agile, nimble
informal chipper, sparkly, zippy, zappy, full of vim and vigour, full of beans
North American informal peppy, peart
Northern English informal wick
archaic frolicsome, sportive, as lively as a grig
Derivatives
spryly
- Moving quite spryly for a woman her age Mrs. Khan strode to the wide shelf at the back of the room and retrieved a neat red notebook.
spryness
- She had been watching birds, which I found to be appropriate, since she had the expressions of a birdwatcher: bookish glasses, and an eternal look of spryness.
- He was small and bent with age yet maintained a spryness that belied his 75 years and the fact that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
- Johnson attributes her spryness and stamina to regular exercise: she walks a lot and works out at the New York Sports Club twice a week.
Origin
Mid 18th century: of unknown origin.