lascīvĭo, ĭi, ītum, 4, v. n. [lascivus], to be wanton, petulant, sportive, to sport, frisk, frolic (not freq. till after the Aug. per.).
- I. Lit.: licet lascivire, dum nihil metuas, *Cic. Rep. 1, 40, 63: Ap. Claudius ait, lascivire magis plebem quam saevire, Liv. 2, 29, 9: licentiam lasciviendi permittere militi, Suet. Caes. 67: eo principio lascivire miles, Tac. A. 1, 16: exsilit agnus Lascivitque fuga, and wantonly frisks away, Ov. M. 7, 321; cf. Col. 6, 24: angues … lascivientium piscium modo exsultasse, Liv. 27, 5.
Poet.: dextera lascivit caesa Tegeatide capra (of the Luperci, who wantonly struck at passers-by), Sil. 13, 329: ferratus lascivit apex, Claud. Rapt. Pros. 2, 145: quis lascivit aquis et ab aethere ludit, Mart. 4, 3, 7.
Esp.: in Venerem, to be lascivious, Col. 6, 24, 2.
- II. Trop., to indulge in license of language or style (a favorite expression of Quintilian): lascivimus syntonorum modis saltitantes, Quint. 9, 4, 142; cf. id. 11, 1, 56: toto et rerum et verborum et compositionis genere lasciviunt, id. 4, 2, 39: puerilibus sententiolis, id. 12, 10, 73; cf. id. 9, 4, 28; 9, 4, 6: Ovidius lascivire in Metamorphosesi solet, Quint. 4, 1, 77.