Word of the Day Archive
Thursday March 29, 2001
spry \SPRY\ , adjective:
Nimble; lively; active; brisk; vigorous.
Isabella Bird, one of those formidable Victorian women travelers, who at the age of 70 still felt spry enough to ride a black stallion round North Africa's Atlas Mountains, toured the country on horseback.
-- John David Morley, "In the Steps of the Haiku Master", New York Times, July 30, 1989
Pliny describes for us the Roman botanist Antonius Castor, spry as a cricket.
-- "The Trouble with Petunias", New York Times, October 11, 1981
He looked to have some age on him but was still tolerably spry.
-- Annabel Thomas, Blood Feud
Spry is perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish dialect sprygg, "spry."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for spry
