Banter
['bæntə] or ['bæntɚ]
Definition
(v. t.) To address playful good-natured ridicule to, -- the person addressed, or something pertaining to him, being the subject of the jesting; to rally; as, he bantered me about my credulity.
(v. t.) To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like.
(v. t.) To delude or trick, -- esp. by way of jest.
(v. t.) To challenge or defy to a match.
(n.) The act of bantering; joking or jesting; humorous or good-humored raillery; pleasantry.
Typist: Wolfgang
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Jeer, joke, rally, quiz, ridicule, taunt, twit, deride, mock, make fun of, make sport of, make merry with, play upon, make a butt of.
n. Raillery, ridicule, mockery, derision, persiflage, pleasantry, BADINAGE, ASTEISM, joking, jesting, quizzing, frivolous talk, small talk.
Typist: Nelda
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Badinage, chaff, mockery, derision, ridicule, irony, jeering, raillery
ANT:Discussion, discourse, argument
Edited by Adela
Definition
v.t. to assail with good-humoured raillery: to joke or jest at: (arch.) to impose upon trick.—n. humorous raillery: jesting.—ns. Bant′erer; Bant′ering.—adv. Bant′eringly.—adj. Bant′ery (Carlyle).
Typed by Judy
Examples
- There were purpose and feeling, banter and scoff, playing, mingled, on her mobile lineaments. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- But he is incapable of defending them in a discussion, and vainly tries to cover his confusion with banter and insolence. Plato. The Republic.
- But Archer, meeting his eyes, saw the filial light under their banter. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- She smiled as she spoke, letting her eyes rest on his in a way that took the edge from her banter and made him suddenly malleable to her will. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Not much, I am sorry to say, answered the Vicar, accustomed to parry Mr. Toller's banter about his belief in the new medical light. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Sophronia, my love,' her husband repeated in a bantering manner, 'you hear? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He had assumed a bantering air: a light, half-caressing, half-ironicshone aslant in his eye. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- I got but one flash of sheet lightning in the shape of a single bantering smile from his eyes; and then he said, Courage! Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- There is your opportunity, Monsieur Tarzan, bantered the Frenchman. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Checked by Aubrey