Banter
Verb
Etymology: of uncertain origin. It is doubtful whether the verb or the noun was the earlier.
Third-person singular simple present: she (he) banters
Indicative past, past participle: bantered
Present participle: bantering.
Transitively:
First definition: to treat (a person) jocularly; this is, to address (some one) in such a manner as to expect in reaction either a smile or a laughter; to ridicule without intention of offending the person addressed; to address a playful ridicule to (a person)
Synonyms: to mock at (some one), quiz, chaff, rally, jeer
It may be approximately translated by embromar, in Spanish; burlare, in Italian; plaisanter (quelqu’un), in French.
It was an imperfect instrument, something between a flute and a clarionet, […]. An islander informed me that it was the only sort of musical instrument which the Northern tribes possessed, and that it was played upon by the young men only when they were _in love_. I suspected at first that he was bantering me, but I afterwards found that what he said was true.
Frederick Marryat (Diary in America)
At length I fancied I heard people calling me by my name, some saying words of warning or caution, and others jeering and bantering me.
Charles James Lever (Paul Gosslett's Confessions in Love… )
He was an inexperienced hunter and a poor shot, for which he was much bantered by his more adroit comrades. Piqued at their raillery, he had been practicing ever since he had joined the expedition, but without success.
Washington Irving (Astoria)
***Reciprocally:
He was constantly surrounded on such occasions by buffoons selected, for the most part, from among the vilest pettifoggers who practised before him. These men bantered and abused each other for his entertainment.
Thomas Macaulay (The history of England)
The other Cavaliers whooped and laughed in the […] jest, pushing and bantering each other as they hurried on in full pursuit of the rapidly retreating chase.
George Whyte Melville (Holmby House)
[…] the felicity and good humour with which they bantered one another […]
George Tucker (The Valley of Shenandoah) vol. II
***With the prepositions for, on or upon, immediately or mediately followed by its object (a noun, or a gerund) which is designative either of the cause or of the theme of the banter:
Kitty bantered me a good deal on my silence throughout the remainder of the ride.
Rudyard Kipling (Indian Tales)
He bantered me on the subject of religion.
The letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Others of Goldsmith's friends entertained similar ideas with respect to his fitness for the task, and they were apt now and then to banter him on the subject, and to amuse themselves with his easy credulity.
Washington Irving (Oliver Goldsmith)
"Being with a party at Versailles, viewing the waterworks, a question [… followed] among the gentlemen present, whether the distance from whence they stood to one of the little islands was within the compass of a leap. Goldsmith maintained the affirmative; but, being bantered on the subject, and remembering his former prowess as a youth, attempted the leap, but, falling short, descended into the water, to the great amusement of the company."
Washington Irving (Oliver Goldsmith)
[…] encountering Mr Nadgett in the outer room, he bantered that stealthy gentleman on always appearing anxious to avoid him, and inquired if he were afraid of him.
Charles Dickens (Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit)
Lord Westbury, perceiving the involuntary coldness of his Cecilia towards this great favourite of his, banters me on being a miser of my mind, and hardly suffering any one to know the extent of my treasure.
Sophia Lee (The life of a lover)
The person […] was a foreigner —a terrible-looking man; so much so, that all the servants bantered me on the bad countenance and shabbiness of appearance of my visiter.
Marguerite Blessington (The Works of Lady Blessington)
To calm the fears of his daughter, the queen of France, he dictated a letter, in which, evidently […] to conceal the full extent of his misfortune, he bantered her on having recently advised him to beware of cold. "You ought," said he, "rather to have warned me to beware of heat."
Richard Davenport (Narratives of peril and suffering)
The cunning old Indian followed him to and fro, holding out a sea-otter skin to him at every turn, and pestering him to trade. Finding other means unavailing, he suddenly changed his tone, and began to jeer and banter him upon the mean prices he offered. This was too much for the patience of the captain, who was never remarkable for relishing a joke, especially when at his own expense. Turning suddenly upon his persecutor, he snatched the proffered otter-skin from his hands, rubbed it in his face […]
Washington Irving (Astoria)
“I wish,” said Miss Trevannion to her friend, “that you would cease bantering me upon that subject.”
William Pitt Scargill (Tales of a briefless barrister)
[…] he began the conversation by bantering me upon what he called my "robustious" appearance compared with what he had been led to expect from gloomy reports of uncertain health.
T. Hall Caine (Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
It may be inferred that at this time Chaucer had grown somewhat corpulent, as the host, who was ‛a large man,’ banters him upon having a waist as well shaped as his own.
Geoffrey Chaucer (Poetical works…)
I soon reached the place of rendezvous, and was greeted by the merry voices of my companions, who were already seated on the coach which was to convey us to our place of destination. They bantered me upon my dilatoriness.
Alfred Crowquill (A bundle of crowquills)
[My tutor] bantered me for supposing there could be only one man in the whole university worthy of being my friend.
Robert Ward (Works)
None of my acquaintances knew what I was doing with my money, and often bantered me for not joining in their revels as I was wont.
William Chambers (Chambers’s journal, vol. 24)
Trying to find a short cut Dr. Donaldson took the wrong road, and instead of a “short” cut we got one thirty-five miles longer and came down a steep hill through a forest where a little mistake in driving, or loose earth might have precipitated us down the side of the mountain. Of course the party bantered me for being afraid, but caution is the better part of valor in an automobile.
Sophie A. Poe (Out of a Duffle Bag)
The mother, on her way to bring Agnes to her sister, met the rest of the family returning to the house after having taken leave of Osborne. The two girls were weeping, for they looked upon him as already a brother; whilst William, in a good-humored tone, bantered them for the want of firmness.
William Carleton (Jane Sinclair)
***With the preposition about, before a noun or a gerund designative either of the cause or of the theme of the banter:
Winston knew the man, and was about to urge the horse forward, but in place of it drew bridle, and laughed with a feeling that was wholly new to him as he remembered that his neighbors now and then bantered him about his English, and that Courthorne only used the Western colloquialism when it suited him.
Harold Bindloss (Winston of the Prairie)
[…] we bantered each other about our ages, each claiming to be older than the other.
William Dean Howells (Seven English Cities)
[…] when we were to dine en famille with Mr. Belfield, Mrs. Maitland began to banter me about marriage; in which she was joined by Mrs. Belfield, and both ladies became quite in earnest on the subject.
Alexander Balfour (Campbell)
[…] he saw me walking home with only some other boys and girls my own age, he quickly overtook us and began to banter me about my not having my bodyguard.
Eldon Frye (Out of the Back Woods)
***With the preposition with, and its object (a noun or a gerund designative of what is said jocularly):
[…] the very children in the streets bantered him with the title of “The Adelantado of the Seven Cities.”
Bentley’s miscellany, vol. 4
For some time after his return from Paris, he exhibited an unwonted degree of […] communicativeness, and we frequently bantered him with having become half a Frenchman.
William Henry (Memoirs of… John Dalton)
[…] his fellow pupils likewise bantering him with the epithet of the ox, in allusion to his extreme dulness and tardiness.
Thomas Roscoe, as translator (The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. V)
***Reflexively:
Mr Dennis appeared to think it an uncommon circumstance, and to banter himself upon it.
Charles Dickens (Barnaby Rudge)
[…] Adolpha, all crimson with shame, yet trying to banter herself, invited Meeta to walk with her in the garden till dinner.
Anna Porter (The village of Mariendorpt)
The poet was fond of smoking his pipe, and banters himself as being no hero in cavalry.
John Nichols (Illustrations of the literary history, vol. 6)
***To banter (someone) out of: to dissuade (a person) from something by bantering him
[…] he laughed in a merry [… manner], as if he were bantering her out of something. By-and-by, she laughed, and then all went well again.
Jacob Abbott (Early and Private Life of Benjamin Franklin)
[Captain Everard is bantering:] “You have described me exactly,” said he, bowing; “your insight into character is wonderful; you ought to write fashionable and domestic novels.”
But Edith was not to be bantered out of her severity.
Menella Bute Smedley (The maiden aunt)
Wrung as I was to the heart, I was ashamed of having it supposed that the loss of my hundred guineas in the least affected me. Belmont insisted that I should sup with him, and when I attempted to decline his invitation bantered me out of my refusal, by asking if I had parted with my hundred guineas to purchase the spleen.
Thomas Holcroft (The Adventures of Hugh Trevor)
I bantered him out of this argument.
John Frost (The panorama of nations)
Nothing could exceed the gaiety of the French soldiery: if they saw a young conscript sad […], he would soon be laughed and bantered out of his sadness.
John Frost (Pictorial life of Napoleon Bonaparte)
He consulted Bob Lee about it, and got only a bantering answer and a hint about the note of hand. Giles was not to be bantered out of his belief, but laid the case before sundry of his acquaintance, who were notorious for their credulity in all marvellous affairs.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton (Traits of American humor, vol. I)
***To banter (someone) into something: to persuade (a person) into something by bantering him:
Even after a day of heavy toil at log-rolling, the young men and boys bantered one another into foot races, wrestling matches, shooting contests, and other feats of strength or skill.
Frederic Austin Ogg (The Old Northwest)
Golopin […] has great faith in his flute, and generally carries it about with him. At Casserole’s restaurant in the Haymarket, one evening, having a violent dispute with Klitzer, […], who had bantered him into a state of frenzy, he positively struck that big instrumentalist in the face, though he had to jump at least a foot in the air to do so.
George Augustus Sala (Gaslight and Daylight)
Your young female friends should never be allowed to tease or banter you into the betrayal of this secret.
John Farrar (The young lady’s friend)
Second definition: to delude (someone) by bantering him. Now archaic.
Miss Bertram was in the breakfast-parlour when Sampson shuffled in, his face all radiant with smiles--a circumstance so uncommon that Lucy's first idea was that somebody had been bantering him with an imposition.
Walter Scott (Guy Mannering)
Third definition: to incite banteringly (a person) to do something. More usually, to incite to compete ludicrously for winning something (as, a bet, a race, etc.)
Antonym: to dissuade
Synonym: to challenge
***With the preposition for, mediately or inmediatedly followed by a noun designative of what is incited:
I was thinking of walking out into the country, and bantering somebody for a foot-race.
William Alexander Caruthers (The Kentuckian in New-York)
Shortly after leaving the Williams ranch next morning I met a crowd of Chickasaw indians who bantered me for a horse race.
Charles A. Siringo (A Texas Cow Boy)
We were traveling through a thick, heavy wood, when we met a sewing-machine agent. I saw at once that he was driving an animal that exactly matched the one we brought from Chicago.
I bantered him for a trade.
He stopped, and after looking over the horse I had just bought, said he'd trade for seventy-five dollars.
"I'll give you fifty dollars."
J. P. Johnston (Twenty Years of Hus'ling)
[…] they bantered us for horse races. I had eight of the horses brought back to the south side of the river, myself and two of my cowboys ran races with them all that afternoon.
J. Marvin Hunter (The Trail Drivers of Texas)
With two friends he went down to bathe. While he remained upon the shore, and his companions were sporting with the waves at a considerable distance, he espied an enormous shark making straight for the unconscious swimmers. The first impulse of a hasty and inconsiderate person would have been to alarm the bathers by loud outcries of danger. But our friend knew that such a course would, by frightening them, deprive his companions of all power of escape. He therefore preserved his unconcerned appearance, and playfully shouted to them, bantered them for a race, and to increase the rivalry between them, promised the one who should first reach the shore a slight reward.
Francis Woodworth (American miscellany…)
[…] when Reece's men came back after their winter drift during the beef-gathering season, Bold Richard Larkin bantered the one who had left the cattle for a poker game, pitting the line-back three-year-old against a white poker cow then in the Pool pasture and belonging to the man from Black Bear.
Andy Adams (Cattle Brands)
***With an infinitive designative of what is incited:
I feel his little […] hands over my eyes, and hear a child’s voice bantering me to guess his name.
Daniel Harvey Hill (The Land we love)
When our boats started for shore, the divers followed us quite a distance, bantering us to throw coins into the water.
Edgar Watson Howe (The trip to the West Indies)
I began an immediate search for a buyer for my horses and carriage, but without success, till one day an old gentleman bantered me to trade the entire outfit for a yoke of oxen and a two-wheeled cart, and was somewhat surprised when I showed my readiness to "swap" for five hundred dollars to boot.
J. P. Johnston (Twenty Years of Hus'ling)
The young lady had just left school, and had never seen a steeplechase before, and her eagerness kept her companions in continual merriment. They were bantering her to bet, which she had as yet refused to do.
Thomas Nelson Page (Bred in the Bone)
Tuttle and Deweese rode together in the lead, and on nearing town one of the strangers bantered Pasquale to sell him a nice maguey rope which the vaquero carried.
Andy Adams (A Texas Matchmaker)
Again the cards were put face down, and the company was bantered to bet the wine. Nobody would bet.
Edward Eggleston (The End of the World)
It is said that two scientific pedestrian halted here to view [… the stream] one hot day, and feeling desirous of bathing their feet, bantered one another to jump in.
William Fisk (A collection…)
Intransitively:
To use a banter; to behave as a banterer
Synonyms: to joke, jest, pleasant
"Are you bantering, or are you in earnest?" cries the father, with a most solemn voice.
Henry Fielding (The History of Tom Jones)
Their laughter was noisy, their banter of one another and of Winona was continuous, and Winona laughed, even bantered. That she should banter strangers in a public place! She felt rowdy, but liked it.
Harry Leon Wilson (The Wrong Twin)
During our walk Reginald was […] springing over every rail and gate we had to pass; skirmishing with every old cow; decapitating every towering thistle; laughing, bantering, joking, all the while: seeming to find it impossible, by any means, to exhaust his exuberant activity of body and mind.
Anne Marsh-Caldwell (Mount Sorel)
All at once his pretty, pleasant hostess, with whom he had been glad enough to banter, and with whom even he had been ready to enter upon a mild and innocent flirtation, became horrible and hateful to him.
Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron (Vera Nevill)
***With the preposition with, followed by a noun designative either of the person who reciprocates a joke, or of the banteree:
She bantered with her customers.
R. G. Alexander (Wicked Bad)
Old Germans talked over their beer pots, and puffed at their pipes; young ones laughed and bantered with the servant girls.
Francis Parkman (Vassall Morton)
