pert

Produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and written by his frequent collaborator Samson Raphaelson, this Paramount picture, running a pert 82 minutes, positively shimmers with wit and sizzles with innuendo.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

Boonbunchachoke’s strange and funny script is constructed of multiple nesting stories, like how my own vacuum pops out a pert little dustbuster that really digs into the cracks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026

Smug, as we use it as a synonym for conceited or self-righteous, emerged from its earlier sense of “neat and trim,” which is exactly the ideal of a pert bump.

From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025

“Régine’s pert appearance and vivacious stage manner cover a multitude of inflexibilities, and the sheer exuberance of her performance was, in itself, more than sufficient enticement.”

From New York Times ● May 1, 2022

The light dusting of freckles across her pert nose.

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

Helen Mirren – sometimes interrogated by a perter, more wayward, youthful version of herself – moves through some 60 years of regality.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 10, 2013

Thou shouldst grow perter, or submit to a solitary quarantine, if thou wouldst not infect the whole brood.'

From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 7 by Samuel Richardson

Like all their kin, they had been born with their eyes open and were much "perter" then other animal infants.

From A Mountain Boyhood by Enos B. (Enos Benjamin) Comstock

And I thought the woman looked quite a little perter; it duz down-trod folks lots of good to have somebody take their part.

From Samantha at Coney Island and a Thousand Other Islands by Marietta Holley

Soon see your wish fulfilled in either child, The pert made perter, and the tame made wild.

From Magnum Bonum by Charlotte Mary Yonge

"Thank you!" said Madge at her prickly pertest.

From The Messenger by Elizabeth Robins

She were the sprackest little maid, the sharpest, pertest thing.

From The Verse-Book of a Homely Woman by Fay Inchfawn

This Heuresis, this Invention, is the proudest jackanapes, the pertest, self-conceited boy that ever breathed.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 9 by Various

Miss Sibson rejoined, in a tone which had been known to quell the pertest of seventeen-year-old rebels.

From Chippinge Borough by Stanley J. Weyman

Then I laughed loudly—it was only a hare, the prettiest and pertest thing imaginable.

From Scottish Ghost Stories by Elliott O'Donnell