raillery

American  

[rey-luh-ree] / ˈreɪ lə ri /

noun

• railleries
  plural

1. good-humored ridicule; banter.

   Synonyms:

   pleasantry, chaff, badinage

2. a bantering remark.

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raillery British  

/ ˈreɪlərɪ /

noun

1. light-hearted satire or ridicule; banter

2. an example of this, esp a bantering remark

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• railleries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of raillery

1645–55; < French raillerie, equivalent to Middle French raill ( er ) to rail ² + -erie -ery

Explanation

Use the noun raillery to describe a kind of joking or gentle teasing. There will probably be a bit of raillery between elementary school students on a field trip bus, for example. If you engage in raillery, you make fun of someone — but lightheartedly, not in a way that would cause offense. The raillery between good friends or siblings might include laughter and teasing, or a joking banter back and forth. To rail is to complain, although its Middle French root, railler, means "to tease or joke," possibly from the Old Provençal word ralhar, "to scoff or to joke."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

raillery railleries

The first Shakespearean phrase I underlined during this period was “skirmish of wit,” about the raillery between Beatrice and Benedick, which inspired a lifelong expectation that romance must include snark.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2021

Some of the raillery, while funny, feels like overkill.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2017

Mr. O’Brien, as the admittedly and entertainingly ornery Jack, brings the energy of mild raillery to the proceedings.

From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2015

Old pals, they knew each other’s foibles and weaknesses all too well and exploited them in an ongoing raillery of inside jokes, ragging, and general good-natured BS.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2013

I saw their eyes bespeaking confusion at this raillery, sorrow to hear our liberator mocked thus, and anxiety at what His Lordship’s uncertainty might mean.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

No person, no moment is safe from his railleries.

From Time Magazine Archive

They stood in an alcove long known ironically as "The Statesman's Window," from the highly political railleries exchanged there when voluble Mr. Potter was on the Council.

From Time Magazine Archive

A man will be justly uneasy at being reminded of those railleries in one company which he would very patiently bear the imputation of in another.

From The Works of Henry Fielding Edited by George Saintsbury in 12 Volumes Volume 12 by George Saintsbury

I endeavoured, by arguments and railleries, to revive his courage.

From Arthur Mervyn Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 by Charles Brockden Brown

Ben Jonson did not then foresee that, before the lapse of one generation, the Puritans would be sufficiently powerful to take a very severe revenge on his art, on account of similar railleries.

From Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by John Black