Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A clever, witty remark often prompted by the occasion.
- n. A clever, often sarcastic remark; a gibe. See Synonyms at joke.
- n. A petty distinction or objection; a quibble.
- n. Something curious or odd.
- v. To make quips or a quip.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A smart sarcastic turn; a sharp or cutting jest; a severe retort; a gibe.
- To use quips or sarcasms; gibe; scoff.
- To utter quips or sarcasms on; taunt; treat with a sarcastic retort; sneer at.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort; a gibe.
- n. A short humorous or witty comment or observation, usually spontaneously formed in response to a prior comment.
- v. To taunt; to treat with quips.
- v. To scoff; to use taunts.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a witty saying
- v. make jokes or quips
- n. witty remark
Etymologies
- Alteration of obsolete quippy, perhaps from Latin quippe, indeed, from quid, what; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“In my reading, the Santayana quip is among the "requisite caveats" that Isaacson says Murphy "provides.”
“Take health care reform, the issue that Obama through Gibbs cited when he made his one term quip, and has cited repeatedly in the past as the thing that he'd rise or fall on.”
““This quip is not dishonest: though I have several friends who have combined novel-reading with motherhood very successfully, in my own head I hold a convoluted equation, one based on the approximate number of hours I have left to live versus the number of good books I have left to read, and it is very anxiety-inducing.””
“Reading the posts on the economy and listening to the news reminds me of a quip from a century ago:”
“Giant Step - The trick to understanding the meaning of Stiglers quip is to have what is technically called a sense of humour.”
Milton Friedman: The Man Who Laughs, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Also, rum & nog reminds me of a quip from the xmas episode of a favorite sitcom:”
“In the US a common quip is that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.”
“Well maybe like her other side of the coin quip, those are just a little extreme.”
“I would add that the purpose of the quip is that it is a restatement of “those that don’t do, teach”, or other phrases similar.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » The William F. Buckley Clause of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780
“The article’s pretty short, but my favourite part is this quip from a bishop:”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quip’.
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Q words
Ever get stuck with the random bunch of letters and a q and not know any words? Well, maybe this will help.
quire, quais, quai, queer, quoit, quitrent, quit, quipster, question, quest, questing, quests and 208 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 89 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 more...
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Good ol' qu-
quag, quagga, quaff, querulous, quorum, sesquipedalian, quibble, quip, aquiline, quote, quotationist, quoter and 29 more...
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I am : talking
"These are talking words," I announce. "You mean verbs that can be used for dialogue?" you ask. "That's right!" I agree.
say, speak, ask, declare, query, shout, yell, scream, shriek, squeal, squeak, screech and 81 more...
Telofy Quippy is cute, too. Sep 27, 2009
arcadia I love this word. I love asking people to "tell me what you mean, without the quips". Sep 27, 2009