HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her off the Andulasian coast in 1801.

Sprightly shared with the frigate Amphitrite, sloop Fairy, and the cutters Griffin, Flying Fish, and Wells, in the capture on 24 May 1779 of the French privateers Dunkerque and Prince de Robcq, which had "eight ransomers" aboard.

Sprightly was one of the vessels that shared in the award to the squadron of £15,000 for her role in the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt. This was a brief naval engagement off the Isle of Wight on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Commodore Charles Fielding, and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic under the command of Rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt, which was escorting a Dutch convoy.

On 27 March 1780, Sprightly, under the command of Lieutenant Gabriel Bray, and another cutter, Resolution captured the cutter Larke.

Next, Sprightly, Resolution, and the tender Union captured the brig Susanna on 8 April.

On 25 December 1780, Sprightly was in company with the sloop Fortune. She therefore shared in the proceeds of the capture on that day of Noord Star.

Sprightly, was among the vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Dutch warship Princess Caroline on 30 December.

Around 2 January 1781 the cutters Sprightly, Repulse, and Expedition brought several captured Dutch vessels into The Downs.