a. colloq. [f. LARK sb.2 + -SOME.] Given to ‘larking,’ sportive.
1844. in N. P. Willis, ed. The Opal, 42. By this delinquency the impoverished gentleman was saddled with the maintenance of a comely, larksome nephew.
1865. Lake Wakatip Mail, 20 Sept., 2/5. Two residents … were jogging along the Blueskin Road … ‘half seas over’ and larksome, and no doubt they indulged in extra nips from a bottle of spirits which one of them carried in his pocket.
1871. Daily News, 11 Sept., 2/2. Hinting to them that the melodrama had not been produced for larksome purposes.
1890. A. Lang, in Longm. Mag., Sept., 574–5. Anybody would think that the obstreperous and larksome ghosts … had been practical jokers in this life.
