Briskness; smartness.

Sauciness; forward promptness or boldness; implying less than effrontery or impudence. Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer.

Petty liveliness; sprightliness without force, dignity or solidity: . There is in Shaftsbury’s works a lively pertness and a parade of literature.