Quip

//kwɪp// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort or comeback; a gibe.

    "Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles."

  2. 2
    witty remark wordnet
  3. 3
    a witty saying wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To make a quip. intransitive

    "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. 2
    make jokes or quips wordnet
  3. 3
    To taunt; to mock with quips. transitive

    "the more he laughs, and does her closely quip"

Synonyms

All synonyms
epigramgaggibejestjoketaunt

Example

More examples

"That quip was just not funny enough."

Etymology

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

More for "quip"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.