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Meanings of pertness in English

Inappropriate playfulness.

        Usage of pertness in English
        1
        He has lost that vivacity and pertness so characteristic on the plantation.
        Our World; Or, the Slaveholder's Daughter
        2
        And I like her better so, than to answer pert with pertness.
        Mary Anerley: A Yorkshire Tale
        3
        Now all her pertness to the former, she says, fly in her face.
        Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 8
        4
        Formerly she had treated him with the free-and-easy pertness of a precocious child.
        Other People's Business: The Romantic Career of the Practical Mi...
        5
        She introduced Prussia and Persia into their conversation with abominable pertness and frequency.
        The Virginians
        6
        They have a quaint pertness, a delightful conceit, a native self-assertion.
        Miscellanies
        7
        They asked us, with great pertness, what business we had there?
        The Life of General Francis Marion
        8
        There is in this piece more pertness than wit, and more confidence than knowledge.
        The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 08 / ...
        9
        Once, indeed, he was touched to the quick by a piece of schoolboy pertness.
        Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography
        10
        And Garnache cursed this pertness of hers which was serving to dare him on.
        St. Martin's Summer
        11
        If we repel by pertness, we know who never does.
        Roundabout Papers
        12
        Then Lillian, who was not her match for pertness, spoke.
        By the Light of the Soul: A Novel
        13
        And I shall tell them to who I like, spite of Deda's pertness, mama.
        Mrs. Day's Daughters
        14
        I see Charles hasn't cured you of your pertness yet, miss-ma'am , Ishouldsay.
        The Path to Honour
        15
        Turn not thy cheek in scorn toward folk, nor walk with pertness in the land.
        Three Translations of The Koran (Al-Qur'an) side by side
        16
        Or, if the classics bore you, Watteau and the rococo pertness of the Grand Monarch.
        A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago
        About this term
        More collocations
        Pertness through the time
        Pertness across language varieties
        United Kingdom
        Common