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wit
1[ wit ]
noun
- the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure.
Synonyms: drollery
- speech or writing showing such perception and expression.
Synonyms: raillery, quip, witticism, banter, bon mot, persiflage, badinage, repartee
- a person having or noted for such perception and expression.
- understanding, intelligence, or sagacity.
- Usually wits.
- powers of intelligent observation, keen perception, ingenious contrivance, or the like; mental acuity, composure, and resourcefulness:
using one's wits to get ahead.
- mental faculties; senses:
to lose one's wits;
frightened out of one's wits.
wit
2[ wit ]
verb (used with or without object)
- Archaic. to know.
wit
1/ wɪt /
noun
- the talent or quality of using unexpected associations between contrasting or disparate words or ideas to make a clever humorous effect
- speech or writing showing this quality
- a person possessing, showing, or noted for such an ability, esp in repartee
- practical intelligence (esp in the phrase have the wit to )
- dialect.information or knowledge (esp in the phrase get wit of )
- archaic.mental capacity or a person possessing it
- obsolete.the mind or memory
wit
2/ wɪt /
verb
- archaic.to be or become aware of (something)
adverb
- to witthat is to say; namely (used to introduce statements, as in legal documents)
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of wit1
Origin of wit2
Idioms and Phrases
- keep / have one's wits about one, to remain alert and observant; be prepared for or equal to anything:
to keep your wits about you in a crisis.
- live by one's wits, to provide for oneself by employing ingenuity or cunning; live precariously:
We traveled around the world, living by our wits.
- to wit, that is to say; namely:
It was the time of the vernal equinox, to wit, the beginning of spring.
- at one's wit's end. at the end of one's ideas or mental resources; perplexed:
My two-year-old won't eat anything but pizza, and I'm at my wit's end.
More idioms and phrases containing wit
see at one's wit's end ; have one's wits about one ; live by one's wits ; scare out of one's wits ; to wit .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
When Harris first stepped out as the nominee, she was all jauntiness and humor/quick wit/cheek, but she then sank back into the party’s old habits.
This, she added, had left people at "their wits' end" and feeling punished – including the person living in a care setting.
He pauses, then adds with his trademark dry wit, “An ‘Alien’ musical.”
And it helps that the band has a writing style that interjects memorable wit and humor into catchy songs about relatable topics — particularly for its audience of largely therapy-attending millennials and Gen Zers.
How does wit work differently for you in these two different settings?
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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