QUIP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Quip

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/kwɪp/ Listen

noun

Quip n.

A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort; a gibe. "Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles." "He was full of joke and jest, But all his merry quips are o'er."

A short humorous or witty comment or observation, usually spontaneously formed in response to a prior comment.

verb

Quip v. t. (past & past part. quipped; pres. part. quipping) To taunt; to treat with quips. "The more he laughs, and does her closely quip."

Quip v. i. To scoff; to use taunts.

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Etymology of 'Quip'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Quip" Quotes from Famous Books

... many things that are very desirable and necessary are often overshadowed by the skilful juxtaposition that shifts them where they are but dimly seen, while other things stand forth in a strong light and are thus looked upon as all important. So the merry quip and jest at the Latin and Greek studied by the Negro bring far more than a passing laugh—they really bring discredit upon the whole higher training where none is actually intended. It causes the old friends of higher learning ...

— The Educated Negro and His Mission - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 8 • W. S. Scarborough

... Peters, one of the town's foppish young gallants, and who now occupied a prominent front seat, had widely announced the fact that he was present for the express purpose of "showing the mind-reader up." At him accordingly the first quip was directed. ...

— The Young Railroaders - Tales of Adventure and Ingenuity • Francis Lovell Coombs

... he picked up between his sackpossets much loose gossip. He took his ordinary at a boilingcook's and if he had but gotten into him a mess of broken victuals or a platter of tripes with a bare tester in his purse he could always bring himself off with his tongue, some randy quip he had from a punk or whatnot that every mother's son of them would burst their sides. The other, Costello that is, hearing this talk asked was it poetry or a tale. Faith, no, he says, Frank (that was his name), 'tis all about Kerry cows that are to ...

— Ulysses • James Joyce

... Jonson's sons, solemnly promised to give the child a dozen good "Latin spoons" for the father to "translate." Latin was a play upon the word "latten," which was the name of a metal resembling brass. The simple quip was a good-humoured hit at Jonson's pride in his classical learning. Dr Donne related the anecdote to Sir Nicholas L'Estrange, a country gentleman of literary tastes, who had no interest in Shakespeare except from the literary point of view. He entered ...

— Shakespeare and the Modern Stage - with Other Essays • Sir Sidney Lee

... merely such notes as he might have written had we both been living within the four-mile radius; usually notes about books which he needed, always brightened with a quip and some original application of slang. Occasionally there were rhymes. One was ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

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