Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character of being witty; the quality of being ingenious or clever.
  • noun Something that is witty; an ingenious invention.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being witty.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the quality of being witty

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • "Then spake Sir Frederick: I cannot denye you, Count Lewis, that writinge is not a maner of speaking. But this I saie, if the wordes that are spoken have any darkenesse in them, that communicacion perceth not the minde of him that heareth: and passing with out being understoode, wexeth vaine and to no purpose: the whiche dothe not happen in writyng, for if the woordes that the writer useth bring with them a litle (I will not saie diffycultie) but covered subtilty, and not so open, as suche as be ordinarily spoken, they geve a certain greater aucthoritye to writing, and make the reader more hedefull to pause at it, and to ponder it better, and he taketh a delyte in the wittinesse and learning of him that writeth, and with a good judgement, after some paines takyng, he tasteth the pleaser that consisteth in harde thinges."

    - The Book of the Courtier, translation by Thomas Hoby, 1561.

    April 8, 2009