From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishjauntyjaun‧ty /ˈdʒɔːnti $ ˈdʒɒːnti, ˈdʒɑːnti/ adjective 1 CONFIDENTshowing that you are confident and happy He had a jaunty walk. Her hat was set at a jaunty angle.2 jaunty music is fast and makes you feel happy a jaunty tune —jauntily adverb —jauntiness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
jaunty• By the time our bowls were scraped clean, our anxieties would be stilled, our spirits jaunty.• He tried to be jaunty about it and almost succeeded.• His grey hat, which he swept off with a flourish as the ladies approached, was set at a jaunty angle.• They love him ... all that golden hair and the jaunty moustache.• a jaunty pink shirt• Characters sing jaunty ragtime and barbershop melodies.• The 1960s were the years of jaunty self-confidence among economists, and the reasons for this were not difficult to fathom.• She had a startlingly dashing necklace and wore some sort of a uniform cap in a jaunty way.at a jaunty angle• His grey hat, which he swept off with a flourish as the ladies approached, was set at a jaunty angle.Origin jaunty (1700-1800) jentee “polite” ((17-18 centuries)), from French gentil 