joking

All joking aside, what was once considered an expensive gimmick is on the verge of going mainstream.

He couldn't know now whether she was serious or merely joking; but notwithstanding it sounded pleasant to his ears.

"I wasn't joking last night when I told Goodell that this was something of a forlorn hope," he said.

Yet they do not appear to feel it as much as might be supposed—they were always merry, and joking over their work.

To which Mr. Sikes replied, he was joking;as if he had been sober, there would have been strong reason to suppose he was.

I repeated the hour,Pg 241 thinking he did not understand, but he said he thought at first we were surely joking.