adjective

• Energetic but awkward in one's movements or behavior.

  ‘long, lean, coltish women’

  More example sentences

  • ‘their impossibly coltish legs’
  • ‘They capture the coltish youth of two 16-year-olds in the throes of first love, but somehow missing is the fever of a relationship that spirals toward death.’
  • ‘There she was gambolling around Covent Garden one afternoon in her school uniform, minding her own business, when a scout from Elite modelling agency caught sight of the coltish 15-year-old.’
  • ‘They paid the princely sum of one shilling to queue up on the narrow staircase and head downstairs into a room filled with the noise of revelling mop-headed boys and coltish girls with pale-painted mouths and thick, black eyelashes.’
  • ‘You can only celebrate the fact that, for a time, the most perfect relationship - between middle-aged fathers and coltish teens - took place under your nose and was replicated in the houses of friends.’
  • ‘Despite the best efforts of Hollywood's image-spinners, she refuses to play the game, preferring to relax, ignore the hype, and flaunt her coltish figure.’
  • ‘They themselves were youthful, ambitious artists channeling the hubris of their own oyster-worlds into these coltish, intelligent alter egos.’
  • ‘Suddenly, every issue of Vogue had picture after picture of the most incredible person: coltish limbs, with a tiny face, retroussé nose, huge eyes and an adorable fringe.’
  • ‘Juliet's coltish, little girl steps soon slink, like Prokofiev's undulating score, into something languorous and self knowing enough to convince us she is now a woman in love.’
  • ‘Yesterday he was asking for more time - for himself, and any manager attempting to rear young players - after watching his coltish team being dismantled by Rangers.’
  • ‘Lengths in skirts are also a matter of preference this Spring, but for those of you with less than coltish limbs, there are also plenty of ankle skimming numbers to choose from.’
  • ‘Working within the constraints of royal ceremony, she combined an impetuous, coltish physicality with high glamour and a flirtatious, seductive allure.’
  • ‘While the Dutch showed coltish flamboyance, the Italians were resolute, unflappable, patient, wise, brilliant.’
  • ‘He was a tall, coltish, bespectacled young man, curiously lovable.’
  • ‘After my rant last week about the downright overblown nature of Premiership football, a coltish newsroom colleague collared me.’
  • ‘On various sporting topics this column has never shied from the notion that talent, no matter how coltish, should be given free rein.’
  • ‘It was, though, his coltish pace and imposing height and strength which first unsettled the Glasgow defence.’
  • ‘He, you see, is a details man, a coltish clothes horse, and a dedicated Anglophile to boot.’
  • ‘He questioned whether he still possessed the athletic vigour to handle coltish opponents as once he did.’
  • ‘A visit to Lake Placid every year allows you to watch as the cute little tykes from pre-juvenile and juvenile dance morph into coltish adolescents in novice and then stunning young heartbreakers in juniors and seniors.’
  • ‘As a coltish 16-year-old who was unprepared to deal with her still-maturing body, she began to struggle with weight control and self-doubt.’

  Synonyms

  frisky, jolly, fun-loving, lively, full of fun, high-spirited, spirited, in high spirits, exuberant, perky, skittish, coltish, kittenish