jeux d’esprit

American  

[zhœ des-pree] / ʒœ dɛsˈpri /

noun

French.

1. the plural of jeu d'esprit.

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Etymology

Origin of jeux d’esprit

First recorded in 1710–20

Example Sentences

And while “Leopoldstadt” is replete, to the bursting point, with historical fact and political theory, it is mostly devoid of the intellectual jeux d’esprit that have been its creator’s signature.

From New York Times

The two early works by him that happily overlapped this season in major London productions are often regarded as the merely playful jeux d’esprit of a giddy lad with an insatiable and compendious mind.

From New York Times

But I see these moves as jeux d’esprit, such as people might do at a drinking party.

From The New Yorker

In both Dee's ecological musings and Leach's relentlessly winsome jeux d'esprit, such ascriptions of mind to life forms and the elements can be read as an attempt to invoke sympathy with the natural world, which might work more successfully for some readers than a straightforward harangue.

From The Guardian

Collaborative fiction brought to mind Victorian jeux d'esprit, 1970s experiments, wiki novels and fan fiction by gamers.

From The Guardian