Banter \Ban"ter\, n. The act of bantering; joking or jesting; humorous or good-humored raillery; pleasantry.
Part banter, part affection. --Tennyson.
Banter \Ban"ter\ (b[a^]n"t[~e]r), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bantered} (b[a^]n"t[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Bantering}.] [Prob. corrupted fr. F. badiner to joke, or perh. fr. E. bandy to beat to and fro. See {Badinage}, and cf. {Barter} fr. OF. barater.] 1. To address playful good-natured ridicule to, -- the person addressed, or something pertaining to him, being the subject of the jesting; to rally; as, he bantered me about my credulity.
Hag-ridden by my own fancy all night, and then bantered on my haggard looks the next day. --W. Irving.
2. To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like. [Archaic]
If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them. --Chatham.
3. To delude or trick, -- esp. by way of jest. [Obs.]
We diverted ourselves with bantering several poor scholars with hopes of being at least his lordship's chaplain. --De Foe.
4. To challenge or defy to a match. [Colloq. Southern and Western U. S.]
These are trying times for the British pub, that unabashedly romanticized bastion of beer, banter and brotherhood.
That control has been in the hands of the government since the company was privatised in 1987. Responses included some characteristic banter between Lord King and Sir Colin on the stage of the Barbican arts complex in central London.
He enjoys the banter and he rarely comes second. Underneath the incredible hulk, with calves the width of sewage pipes, there is genuine humility.
He protested that some networks juxtaposed his lighthearted banter with reporters with pictures of bodies of U.S. servicemen killed in Panama being unloaded from a transport plane.
Bush kept up the constant banter with reporters on the golf course that has often marked his outings here.
Badham maintains a comfortable and easy balance between the banter and thrills.
Talarico agreed with WBZZ that Ms. Randolph knew her job would require her to be involved in "banter and interplay" with other on-air employees, some of which might be risque.
With AM-Remembering Sassy from NEW YORK: Never mind the trifling banter or the continual references to the buckets of sweat that cascaded down her ample frame.
Many of his characters speak in nearly interchangeable cynical-hip one-liners, with racist and sexist slurs all part of the accepted copshop banter.
The Cornell University graduate is separated from other inmates by a wall, but he can hear their banter through a doorway that is usually kept open.
In Chemnitz, in former East Germany, before speaking at a campaign rally, Kohl stopped at a local inn to have coffee and banter with the owners.
Or was she responsible for inciting them by her dress and banter?
He also met with rescue officials, shook hands with townspeople and stopped for a quick drink and friendly banter at a local pub.
Despite a spirit of openness and a freer discussion of once sensitive subjects, philosopher Igor S. Kon believes the Soviets desperately need to engage in some frank banter about the boudoir.
This is a constant in Mitchell's banter, even when it approaches the ridiculous. "Those are the best bagels in America right there," he said, passing a bakery in Bangor.
The public notes on CompuServe offer an eclectic range of technical discussions, emotional arguments and flirtatious banter about movies, sex, home-brewing, tropical fish and hundreds of other topics.