[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

banter \ban"ter\, n.
   the act of bantering; joking or jesting; humorous or
   good-humored raillery; pleasantry.
   1913 webster

         part banter, part affection.             --tennyson.
   1913 webster

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

banter \ban"ter\ ba^n"t~er, v. t. imp.  p. p. bantered
   ba^n"t~erd; p. pr.  vb. n. bantering. prob.
   corrupted fr. f. badiner to joke, or perh. fr. e. bandy to
   beat to and fro. see badinage, and cf. barter fr. of.
   barater.
   1913 webster
   1. to address playful good-natured ridicule to, -- the person
      addressed, or something pertaining to him, being the
      subject of the jesting; to rally; as, he bantered me about
      my credulity.
      1913 webster

            hag-ridden by my own fancy all night, and then
            bantered on my haggard looks the next day. --w.
                                                  irving.
      1913 webster

   2. to jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait,
      habit, characteristic, and the like. archaic
      1913 webster

            if they banter your regularity, order, and love of
            study, banter in return their neglect of them.
                                                  --chatham.
      1913 webster

   3. to delude or trick, -- esp. by way of jest. obs.
      1913 webster

            we diverted ourselves with bantering several poor
            scholars with hopes of being at least his lordship's
            chaplain.                             --de foe.
      1913 webster

   4. to challenge or defy to a match. colloq. southern and
      western u. s.
      1913 webster
see also:
bantered bantering badinage barter 

[3] : WordNet (r) 2.0

banter
     n : light teasing repartee syn: raillery, give-and-take, backchat
     v : be silly or tease one another; "after we relaxed, we just
         kidded around" syn: kid, chaff, jolly, josh
see also:
raillery give-and-take backchat kid chaff jolly 
josh 

[4] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

102 moby thesaurus words for "banter":
   backchat, badinage, beard, blandish, blarney, booing, brave,
   buffoonery, cajole, catcalling, chaff, chaffing, challenge,
   chitchat, clownishness, con, dare, defy, deride, derision,
   exchange, face, fleering, flippancy, fool, foolery, fooling, front,
   fun, give-and-take, gossip, gossipry, grinning, guy, harlequinade,
   haze, hissing, hooting, horseplay, jape, jeering, jest, jesting,
   jive, joke, joking, jolly, josh, joshing, kid, kidding, leering,
   levity, make fun of, make merry with, mock, mockery, monkeyshines,
   needle, outface, panning, persiflage, pleasantry, poke fun at,
   put on, quiz, rag, ragging, raillery, rally, rallying, razz,
   razzing, repartee, rib, ribbing, ride, ridicule, roast, roasting,
   satirize, scoffing, shenanigans, small talk, smart-aleckiness,
   smartness, smirking, sneering, snickering, sniggering, snorting,
   soft-soap, sweet-talk, taunt, taunting, tease, teasing, tomfoolery,
   twit, twitting, venture, wheedle

Banter >> B Words
Banter, definition of term: Banter
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