Definition of "esprit" []

• Liveliness of mind or spirit; sprightliness. (noun)
• Esprit de corps. See Synonyms at morale. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One of the first things seared in to my psyche upon arrival at recruiter training in the Marines was the term esprit de corps."
• "When the Supreme Court held that the military's interest in esprit de corps allowed it to keep a serviceman from wearing a yarmulke without violating the Free exercise Clause (this was before the 1990 decision in Smith), Congress promptly passed a bill mandating accommodation for religious items to be worn with uniforms."
• "Not merely were the men composing these drafts lacking largely in esprit de corps and unfamiliar with the traditions already established of the battalions into which they were drafted, but from the very fact that their original battalions had been left behind when the others went forward, they had been for some months in surroundings which did not make for high martial spirit."