wisecrack
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
wisecracks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wisecracked,
past participle, past
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wisecracking
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
wisecracks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wisecracked,
past participle, past
-
wisecracking
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wisecracksimple
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wisecrackssimple
-
have wisecrackedperfect
-
has wisecrackedperfect
-
am wisecrackingprogressive
-
are wisecrackingprogressive
-
is wisecrackingprogressive
-
have been wisecrackingperfect progressive
-
has been wisecrackingperfect progressive
Past
-
wisecrackedsimple
-
had wisecrackedperfect
-
was wisecrackingprogressive
-
were wisecrackingprogressive
-
had been wisecrackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wisecrack
Explanation
A wisecrack is a funny joke or a sarcastic remark that makes someone laugh. The class clown is usually famous for their wisecracks. You can use this informal word as a verb, too: "How can I know when you're serious if you just wisecrack constantly?" Wisecrack first appeared at the start of the 20th century, from a now-uncommon sense of the verb crack, "speak loudly or boastingly," which is also used in the phrase "to crack a joke." It takes more than wisecracks to be a successful comedian, but it's a good start!
Vocabulary lists containing wisecrack
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Red Kayak
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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:
A wisecrack about the real estate prices popped into my head, but I held my tongue.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Burry is just as likely to be dismissed on social media, where jokers trot out a version of a wisecrack that he predicted 20 of the last two recessions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
More powerful than any wisecrack was the space she left for anticipation not only of what she might say but how she might say it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024
In 2019, Barack Obama said: "I've always appreciated her steadiness, her perspective, and the way a wisecrack from her reverberates around the room."
From BBC ● May 31, 2024
Ken and Bob had this smart, competitive way of joking where one would make a wisecrack and the other would have a comeback and the first would have a retort to the comeback.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
But the superstar isn’t convinced until the very last moment, when she and Ava are about to take their final train ride and can’t resist trading a few wisecracks about death.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
The other is “Fleabag”: Like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s acidic reprobate, Ms. Weisz’s character is unconstrained by a fourth wall, sharing with us, reflecting, observing, making wisecracks but not being particularly funny.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
Squibb is renowned for her crotchety wisecracks, but this touching comedy about unexpected friendship and the different levels of truth allows her to show off another of her remarkable talents: listening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 2025
"Parker offers immaculate room service as she delivers polished rounds of rueful wisecracks."
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2024
Jonah thought maybe Chip was trying to sound like the donkey from Shrek—carefree, glib, and full of wisecracks even in the face of danger.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
After asking Warsh to stand, Trump wisecracked that he would sue him if he failed to lower rates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
“I would trade it in a minute, if I could just be a wife and mother,” wisecracked the gold lame-wrapped, gum-chewing Tenuta, who accepted her award from Carlin.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
“I would trade it in a minute, if I could just be a wife and mother,” wisecracked the gold lamé-wrapped, gum-chewing Tenuta, who accepted her award from Carlin.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
"Good. I didn't feel a thing," she wisecracked.
From Salon ● May 10, 2020
One of the boys behind him wisecracked, “You just wanted to win this thing so you could be taller than us for once, didn’t you?”
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Mr. Chandler certainly gets it, making Hal a wisecracking, long-suffering delinquent who’s as charming as he is insubordinate—not an original type, perhaps, but the actor makes his character the magnetic force of the whole series.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Whenever the tone of the film tilts toward the overly reverent, Waters comes in with a bit of wisecracking, truthtelling remembrance: Oliver chain-smoked, swore, was stubborn, walked in the forest “like a crazy person.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
It’s tough to top the superlative energy Moore shared with Asner, Valerie Harper’s wisecracking Rhoda Morgenstern and Cloris Leachman as Mary’s smugly married downstairs neighbor, Phyllis.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2026
More familiar as a wisecracking action hero in blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, this role is quite a departure for him.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2026
In the middle sat Garvey, the gravelly-voiced, wisecracking Indian parole officer from Minneapolis.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
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.
