repartee

• repartée

From French repartie, deverbal of repartir (“to retort”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛpɑɹˈteɪ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛpɑːˈtiː/

• Audio (US):

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repartee (countable and uncountable, plural repartees)

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

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke

   • 1838 (date written), L E L[andon], chapter XIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 241:

     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.

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

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

   • 1919, W Somerset Maugham, chapter 41, in The Moon and Sixpence, : Grosset & Dunlap Publishers , →OCLC:

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

2. A conversation marked by a series of witty retorts.
3. Skill in replying swiftly and wittily.
   • 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:

     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.

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

     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.

repartee (third-person singular simple present repartees, present participle reparteeing, simple past and past participle reparteed)

1. To reply with a repartee.
   • 1862, Various, The Continental Monthly‎, Vol. 2 No 4:

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

2. To have a repartee (conversation marked by repartees).
   • 1913, Gouverneur Morris, The Penalty‎:

     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.

• “repartee”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• peartree, pear tree, rerepeat, rape tree, repeater, Pear Tree