waggery
Americannoun
-
waggeries
plural
-
the action, spirit, or language of a wag; roguish or droll humor.
the waggery of Shakespeare's clowns.
-
a waggish act; jest or joke.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of waggery
Explanation
A state of being silly or mischiveous is waggery. Your extremely formal, old-fashioned teacher might bring the class's outbreak of giggles to an end by shouting, "Enough of that waggery!" Not too many people use the word waggery these days, but it's the perfect way to describe someone's jocular, playful — but slightly wicked — remarks or behavior. You can tell your impish little sister you're tired of her waggery or accuse your practical-joking uncle of waggery. The word, along with the adjective waggish, comes from wag, or "jokester."
Vocabulary lists containing waggery
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.
See Examples For:
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” has all the digital bells and whistles as well as much of the likable, self-aware waggery of the first.
From New York Times ● May 4, 2017
The New York Times' Manohla Dargis writes that "More is more and is, at times, just right in '22 Jump Street,' an exploding pinata of gags, pratfalls, winking asides, throwaway one-liners and self-reflexive waggery."
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2014
More is more and is, at times, just right in “22 Jump Street,” an exploding piñata of gags, pratfalls, winking asides, throwaway one-liners and self-reflexive waggery.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2014
As a nation we love to laugh and take great pleasure in wordplay, waggery and wit.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2010
The large teeth beneath his discursive moustache gave him the effect of a perennial smile to which his asymmetrical ears added a touch of waggery.
From The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Bixiou had the whole history of his own times at his finger-ends, more particularly its scandalous chronicle, embellished by added waggeries of his own.
From The Firm of Nucingen by Honoré de Balzac
The adjutant and riding-master, making holiday, are both present--"to the front," as they call it, enjoying exceedingly the jests and waggeries of their younger comrades.
From M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." by G.J. Whyte-Melville
Perhaps he even grins over Amyas “burying alternately his face in the pasty and the pasty in his face,” or he tries to feel diverted by the Elizabethan waggeries of Frank.
From Essays in Little by Andrew Lang
Who does not know—at least by name—the Nisse, the being whose waggeries almost all bear the stamp of good-humoured frolic?
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847 by Various
They enjoy him as he is: they examine one another in his books: they gossip on by the hour about his innumerable characters, his never-to-be-forgotten waggeries and fancies.
From Studies in Early Victorian Literature by Frederic Harrison
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.
