I.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.
