quip

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English

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Etymology

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From a shortening of earlier quippy, perhaps from Latin quippe (indeed), ultimately quid (what).

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: kwĭp, IPA(key): /kwɪp/, [kʰw̥ɪp]
  • Rhymes: -ɪp
  • Audio (UK):(file)

Noun

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quip (plural quips)

  1. A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort or comeback; a gibe.
    • 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
      Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles.
    • 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Death of the Old Year”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, [], →OCLC:
      He was full of joke and jest, / But all his merry quips are o'er.
    • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
      He wrote it down, remembering a quip of Pym's, paraphrased from Clemenceau: "Military intelligence has as much to do with intelligence as military music has to do with music.”
    • 2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
      Nobody could ever be bothered to imagine the Sand Snakes beyond personalized weaponry and fake-aggressive quips, none of which were very convincing, and now they don’t even register as dead weight.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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quip (third-person singular simple present quips, present participle quipping, simple past and past participle quipped)

  1. (intransitive) To make a quip.
    • 2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in AV Club[2]:
      In an eerily prescient bit, Kent Brockman laughingly quips that if seventy degree weather in the winter is the Gashouse Effect in action, he doesn’t mind one bit.
  2. (transitive) To taunt; to treat with quips.

Translations

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Anagrams

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