repartee

plural repartees · alternative repartée

1. countableuncountableA swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing.

   A slight smile broke on his lips. ¶ "You are always prepared to sacrifice your principles for a repartee," he answered.

   1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 41, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

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   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.

   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

   Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany[…]

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   Synonyms: joke

2. countableuncountableA conversation marked by a series of witty retorts.

   Each meeting is free-flowing and the discussion less arch, less cut-and-thrust than the repartee at parties thrown in the book by the aristocratic `Guermantes family—although Proust teachs you to look for the unspoken in life as in literature.

   2026 July 25, Josh Spero, “Proust in the age of TikTok”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2

3. countableuncountableA skill in replying swiftly and wittily.

   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.

   1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6

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   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.

   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

present singular third person repartees · participle present reparteeing · participle past reparteed · past reparteed · alternative repartée

1. transitiveTo reply with a repartee.

   Aubrey speaks of him as 'incomparable at reparteeing, the bull that was bayted, his witt beinge most sparkling, when most set on and provoked.'

   1862, Various, The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4

2. transitiveTo have a repartee (a conversation marked by witty retorts or replies).

   To see them together, friendly, reparteeing, chummy, would turn your stomach--Barbara so exquisite and high-born, and the man, his eyes full of evil fires, sitting like a great toad on the model's chair.

   1913, Gouverneur Morris, The Penalty