repartee
See also: repartée
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /ˌɹɛpɑɹˈteɪ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɹɛpɑːˈtiː/
Noun
repartee (countable and uncountable, plural repartees)
- A swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 241:
- Many persons must laugh when a great person or an acknowledged wit says a clever thing, such as a smart repartee, or a really good pun.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany […]
- 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 41, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
- A slight smile broke on his lips. ¶ "You are always prepared to sacrifice your principles for a repartee," he answered.
- A conversation marked by a series of witty retorts.
- Skill in replying swiftly and wittily.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
- 1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6:
- Another millstone around the NDP’s neck was the relative lack of seasoned parliamentarians in the government front bench who were skilled enough at repartee to take on the Tory veterans across the floor.
Translations
swift witty retort
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conversation marked by swift witty retorts
skill in making swift witty retorts
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Verb
repartee (third-person singular simple present repartees, present participle reparteeing, simple past and past participle reparteed)
Translations
to reply with a swift witty retort
to have a conversation marked by swift witty retorts
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Further reading
- “repartee”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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