retortful

comparative more retortful · superlative most retortful

1. Tending to retort or answer back.

   Josh was in trouble at school today for being retortful!

   2011, Maggie Makepeace, Out of Step, A&C Black, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Notwithstanding the padre's regretful humiliations, from a lack of thoughtful consideration, he could not withhold a retortful reminder from his old noli me tangere opponent, of his more flagrant assumption;

   1877, Elton R. Smilie, The Manatitlans: Or, A Record of Scientific Explorations in the Andean La Plata, S.A., page 466

   ‘Clever, fluent, versatile, ready, “retortful” and resourceful in debate’, Clifford was ‘the most literary Colonial Secretary Ceylon had ever had’.

   2011 April 7, Stephanie Williams, Running the Show: The Extraordinary Stories of the Men who Governed the British Empire, Penguin UK, →ISBN