quip
/kwɪp
/noun
1A witty remark: Peter ate heartily with a quip about being a condemned man...
- I came up with excellent quips and remarks and wise cracks.
- The extra layer of respect teachers enjoy in many of my students' home cultures means I don't have to labour very hard to have my quips received as witty, which is a privilege I do my best not to abuse, most of the time.
- Heaps of other stuff happened with the other characters and there were witty quips but I left my notebook at home.
Synonyms
joke, witty remark, witticism, jest, pun, sally, pleasantry, epigram, aphorism;
(quips) repartee, banter;
French bon mot
informal one-liner, gag, crack, wisecrack, funny
1.1 archaic A play on words: tricks of controversy and quips of law
verb (quips, quipping, quipped) [no object]
Make a witty remark: [with direct speech]: ‘Flattery will get you nowhere,’ she quipped...
- At a personal level, I remember him once quipping to me in a lift: ‘How can I like music that is supposed to represent a lost paradise, when I don't believe in such things?’
- Even Oscar Wilde once quipped that he would have been more impressed if the falls ran upwards; at least no one has tried that yet.
- An election, someone once quipped, is the only race in which most people pick the winner.
Synonyms
joke, jest, pun, sally, banter
informal gag, wisecrack
Derivatives
quipster
- Anderson is a quiet quipster, using his wit to ease the strain of criticism.
Origin
Mid 16th century: perhaps from Latin quippe 'indeed, forsooth'.