Definition of "pert"

Goe Philoſtrate, / Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments, / Awake the peart and nimble ſpirit of mirth, / Turne melancholy foorth to funerals: […]

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, [Act I, scene i]

He was instantly attracted to Gladys's pert, fey humor and her good nature.

2001, Donald Spoto, chapter 1, in Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, page 11

Says Mrs. Jervis, Pamela, don’t be pert to his Honour? You ſhould know your Diſtance; you ſee his Honour was only in Jeſt.

1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XVI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], page 37

[T]he Major began to think that Pen was growing exceedingly pert and conceited, and that the world made a great deal too much of him.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850

[…] so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.

1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859

“Then you didn't find her so amusing as Tom does?”“I found her pert. There's no other word for it. She says things to puzzle you and put you out.”

1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XII, in The Rise of Silas Lapham‎

"You'll not be so pert when the Cornish seize you. They spit children like you and roast them on bonfires."

2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 333

Some parled as perte · as prouyd well after, / And clappid more ffor þe coyne · þat þe kyng oweth hem / Thanne ffor comfforte of þe comyne […]Some talked as openly, as proud well after, / And clapped more for the coin that the king owes them / Than for comfort of the common […]]

, published 1873, page 503, lines 88–90