rejoinder

From Middle English rejoinder, rejonder, rejoynder, from Middle French rejoindre, with infinitive used as noun frequent in Law French. Doublet of rejoin.

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹɪd͡ʒˈɔɪndɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪndə(ɹ)

rejoinder (plural rejoinders)

1. (law) The defendant's answer to the replication.
2. A response that answers another response.
   • 1953 March, Irving Chernev, “Chernev's Chess Corner”, in Chess Review:

     "76. ... P-R8(N) mate! Certainly not 76... P-R8(Q), though threatening mate on the move in seven different ways--as 77 Q-N5 mate would have been the painful rejoinder."

3. A quick response that involves disagreement or is witty, especially an answer to a question.

   Synonyms: comeback, retort

   • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, , London: B Motte , published 1738, →OCLC, page ii:

     I have passed perhaps more time than any other man of my age and country in visits and assemblies, where the polite persons of both sexes distinguish themselves; and could not without much grief observe how frequently both gentlemen and ladies are at a loss for questions, answers, replies, and rejoinders.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 38, in The Moon and Sixpence, : Grosset & Dunlap Publishers , →OCLC:

     "I'm starting to-morrow. This is perhaps the last time we shall ever meet." I made an appropriate rejoinder, and he smiled wanly.

   • 2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 15 May 2019:

     The simplest rejoinder to all of Daenerys’ justifications is that this bloodshed could have been avoided. She was given a moment to choose, and she chose blind vengeance, the kind that eliminates any benevolence she hoped to bring to the seven kingdoms by burning it right out of the minds of anyone who saw her astride Drogon, mowing down men, women, and children with abandon.

4. (US patent law) Re-insertion, typically after allowance of a patent application, of patent claims that had been withdrawn from examination under a restriction requirement.

rejoinder (third-person singular simple present rejoinders, present participle rejoindering, simple past and past participle rejoindered)

1. (intransitive) To issue a rejoinder.
2. (transitive) To say as a rejoinder.