jeu d'esprit
Americannoun
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a witticism.
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a literary work showing keen wit or intelligence rather than profundity.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of jeu d'esprit
Literally, “play of spirit”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After a 10-year absence, Mr. Angell resumed his annual rhyming jeu d’esprit in 2008:
From Washington Post • May 20, 2022
In addition, science fiction grandmaster Robert Silverberg describes how “F&SF” got its start and Paul Di Filippo offers a scholarly jeu d’esprit about a long-lost collaboration between Jules Verne and H.G.
From Washington Post • Oct. 2, 2019
Ratmansky’s Violente keeps her arms closer to her chest, and deploys them more softly, so that the pointing becomes a sort of jeu d’esprit.
From The New Yorker • Jun. 8, 2015
There are echoes of “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall,” but the better analogues for this jeu d’esprit, written by Peter Glanz and Juan Iglesias and directed by Mr. Glanz, are Mr. Allen’s comic New Yorker essays.
From New York Times • Aug. 21, 2011
Certainly there is a large amount of jocularity in the familiar writings of Keats—often a quick perception of the ridiculous or the risible, sometimes a telling jest or jeu d’esprit.
From Life of John Keats by Rossetti, William Michael
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.
