badinage

[bad-n-ahzh, bad-n-ij]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR badinage ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

light, playful banter or raillery.

verb (used with object), bad·i·naged, bad·i·nag·ing.

to banter with or tease (someone) playfully.

Origin of badinage

1650–60; < French, equivalent to badin(er) to joke, trifle (verbal derivative of badin joker, banterer < Old Provençal: fool; bad(ar) to gape (< Vulgar Latin batāre; cf. bay²) + -in < Latin -īnus -ine¹) + -age -age

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for badinage

fool, repartee, banter, teasing, ribbing, raillery, persiflage, joking, asteism, joshing, kidding

Examples from the Web for badinage

Historical Examples of badinage

It passes from badinage into personalities and recriminations.
The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862
Various
As a smile dimpled its way into her cheeks, he tired of the badinage.
The Education of Eric Lane
Stephen McKenna
And she had ignored it, taking it as badinage, and he had been too weak to brand it truth.
Garrison's Finish
W. B. M. Ferguson
But I had no mind for badinage, and I turned my face from him sullenly.
A Daughter of Raasay
William MacLeod Raine
"Killing them off" was a matter of badinage with the courtiers.
The Huguenots in France
Samuel Smiles.

British Dictionary definitions for badinage

badinage

noun

playful or frivolous repartee or banter

Word Origin for badinage

C17: from French, from badiner to jest, banter, from Old Provençal badar to gape

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for badinage

"light railery," 1650s, from French badinage "playfulness, jesting," from badiner (v.) "to jest, joke," from badin "silly, jesting," from Old Provençal badar "to yawn, gape," from Late Latin badare "to gape," from *bat-, the root of abash.