BANTER

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does banter mean? 

• BANTER (noun)
  The noun BANTER has 1 sense:

1. light teasing repartee

  Familiarity information: BANTER used as a noun is very rare.

• BANTER (verb)
  The verb BANTER has 1 sense:

1. be silly or tease one another

  Familiarity information: BANTER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BANTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Light teasing repartee

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

backchat; banter; give-and-take; raillery

Hypernyms ("banter" is a kind of...):

repartee (adroitness and cleverness in reply)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "banter"):

badinage (frivolous banter)

persiflage (light teasing)

Derivation:

banter (be silly or tease one another)

• BANTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they banter    ... he / she / it banters   
Past simple: bantered   
Past participle: bantered   
-ing form: bantering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be silly or tease one another

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

banter; chaff; jolly; josh; kid

Context example:

After we relaxed, we just kidded around

Hypernyms (to "banter" is one way to...):

bait; cod; rag; rally; razz; ride; tantalise; tantalize; taunt; tease; twit (harass with persistent criticism or carping)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

banter (light teasing repartee)

 Context examples 

He shook his head in a bantering way, and regarded me with laughing eyes.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But he did not have it in him to be angry with the love-master, and when that god elected to laugh at him in a good-natured, bantering way, he was nonplussed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

On occasion, in a casual sort of way, when she thought hunger pinched hardest, she would send him in a loaf of new baking, awkwardly covering the act with banter to the effect that it was better than he could bake.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Edmund had already gone through the service once since his ordination; and upon this being understood, he had a variety of questions from Crawford as to his feelings and success; questions, which being made, though with the vivacity of friendly interest and quick taste, without any touch of that spirit of banter or air of levity which Edmund knew to be most offensive to Fanny, he had true pleasure in satisfying; and when Crawford proceeded to ask his opinion and give his own as to the properest manner in which particular passages in the service should be delivered, shewing it to be a subject on which he had thought before, and thought with judgment, Edmund was still more and more pleased.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And yet, through the five minutes of banter which followed, there was a serious something underneath the fun which I could not but relate to the strange and fleeting expression I had caught in her eyes.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

To my delight she never once looked toward the beach, and I maintained the banter with such success all unconsciously she sipped coffee from the china cup, ate fried evaporated potatoes, and spread marmalade on her biscuit.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)