What's the difference between jest and wisecrack?

Jest


Definition:

  • (n.) A deed; an action; a gest.
  • (n.) A mask; a pageant; an interlude.
  • (n.) Something done or said in order to amuse; a joke; a witticism; a jocose or sportive remark or phrase. See Synonyms under Jest, v. i.
  • (v. i.) The object of laughter or sport; a laughingstock.
  • (v. i.) To take part in a merrymaking; -- especially, to act in a mask or interlude.
  • (v. i.) To make merriment by words or actions; to joke; to make light of anything.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Dawn Powell: A Time to Be Born (1942) Joseph Heller: Catch-22 (1961) Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions (1973) David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest (1996) The American comedy, generally speaking, is a scatological thing, or a repository of racial prejudice or gender stereotypes.
  • (2) Defining what constitutes merely a jest and what is of a "menacing character" has not been easy for the judges.
  • (3) In Hall’s farewell season of Shakespeare’s late romances in 1988, he led the company alongside Michael Bryant and Eileen Atkins , playing a clenched and possessed Leontes in The Winter’s Tale; an Italianate, jesting Iachimo in Cymbeline; and a gloriously drunken Trinculo in The Tempest (he played Prospero for Adrian Noble at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in 2012).
  • (4) The 2010 book was written by Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky, and is what it says on the tin: an account of a road trip with the author as he went across the US promoting his 1,100-page novel Infinite Jest, recalling the conversations the pair have and the fame that Foster Wallace is starting to experience.
  • (5) From Glasgow, Leeds , Bristol and Dublin , to New York , San Diego and Vancouver , to Perth , Melbourne and Sydney , groups of non-believers will be getting together to form their own monthly Sunday Assemblies, with the movement's founders – the standup comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans – visiting the fledgling congregations in what they are calling, only partly in jest, a "global missionary tour".
  • (6) I did not say so, thank God, even in jest, otherwise our encounter could have been even worse than it was.
  • (7) "That was totally in jest," he added, saying he would "tone down my sense of humour until I become president, because America needs to get a sense of humour".
  • (8) Green's husband Wallace, best known for the novel Infinite Jest, committed suicide at home in 2008 , and was found by Green.
  • (9) "F alsehood flies," wrote Jonathan Swift 300 years ago, "and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect."
  • (10) ‘What is truth?” said jesting Pilate – in Bacon’s famous phrase.
  • (11) It was a jibe made in jest by a man who had much fondness for him.
  • (12) In comments that a source said were largely made in jest, Johnson – who is also the Conservative candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip – attacked the former prime minister over his speech in support of Labour’s current leader Ed Miliband.
  • (13) Although this article is presented in jest, I am not above anything that works to get contributions for my newsletter.
  • (14) I saw Brand's Messiah Complex show in London the other week, in which he – in jest, of course – compares himself to Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Christ.
  • (15) He likes winding people up, being controversial for the sake of it and more often than not what he says is in jest.
  • (16) In jest or in earnest, there is a rank hypocrisy here that sits uncomfortably with me.
  • (17) It was planned as the much-anticipated follow-up to Infinite Jest , the teeming 1,000-page bleakly comic masterpiece that had established Wallace, at 34, as the man most likely to redefine the scope and voice of the American novel.
  • (18) One 18th-century classicist is even said to have planned to write a scholarly edition of the best-known joke book of that period, Joe Miller's Jests , in order to show that every single joke in it was descended from the ancient Laughter Lover .
  • (19) Eurozone unlocks €10.3bn bailout loan for Greece Read more I jest of course.
  • (20) A number of edits, apparently made in jest, have been picked up by the automatic twitter bot Congress Edits , which monitors Wikipedia for changes to the site made by accounts with IP addresses coming from inside the US legislature.

Wisecrack


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Billy Connolly wisecracking about Iraq hostage Ken Bigley?
  • (2) It's not hard to picture her, dodging the autograph-hunters, wisecracking at the tombstones, seizing life while she can.
  • (3) Empson, unforgettable as wisecracking Jamaican gossip Mrs Aphrodite in the Theatre Royal ska musical The Big Life in 2004, is mouthwatering casting as the Queen.
  • (4) Almost exactly the same gag features in a surviving Roman joke book: the Philogelos (or Laughter Lover ), a collection of wisecracks probably compiled in the fourth or fifth century AD.
  • (5) Outside of the octagon, Bisping possesses the demeanour of an oversized Ricky Hatton - all mischievous grins, wisecracks and gentle ribbing of his sparring partners.
  • (6) He plays a wisecracking badass called Snow who's tasked to rescue the president's daughter from a giant space prison overrun by its violent inmates.
  • (7) He responds to serious criticism by a biting wisecrack or diversionary personal attack.
  • (8) Tell that to Tessa, the 17-year-old heroine of Ol Parker's film Now Is Good, whose attitude is more rage against the dying of the light, while wisecracking.
  • (9) And it's not only the comedians who are being scrutinised – in May of this year, actress Jennifer Lawrence was criticised for her wisecrack about breaking out her "rape scream" for a director she admired.
  • (10) Bitcoin's crash is less of a currency crisis than an opportune moment for internet wisecracks.
  • (11) Feel free at this point to wonder aloud whether Gianfranco Zola has been hired as a player rather than manager and to make hilarious wisecracks about imminent swoops for Bruno Conte, Gigi Riva and Sophia Loren.
  • (12) Then there’s The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea , a film starring and produced by Jessica Biel, about a widower who teams up with a wisecracking girl (Williams; who else?)
  • (13) The machine is not about to write nuanced profiles or wisecracking think pieces.
  • (14) He continued in the same wisecracking vein opposite Jane Russell in two spoof Westerns, The Paleface (1948), in which he was a correspondence-school dentist, and Son Of Paleface (1952) where, having caused derision among cowboys in a saloon by ordering milk, Hope quickly adds "in a dirty glass".
  • (15) As well as the ubiquitous wisecracks, Twitter suits fast-breaking news snaps and statistics and so works well on results night.
  • (16) The line narrowly edged out an Alex Horne wisecrack: "I used to work in a shoe-recycling shop.
  • (17) This year's films that no-one wanted to see Read more Matt Damon’s turn as a wisecracking astronaut who finds himself stranded on Mars helped The Martian reclaim the top spot in its fourth week of release with a solid $15.9m (£10.3m), which now gives it a total of $166.4m.
  • (18) went one of the many wisecracks circulating on the internet after it was revealed that the Chelsea and England captain had failed in an attempt to gag reporting of his personal life.
  • (19) Just last week he was to be found wisecracking with his tormentors from the mainstream media and pouring them drinks at the party’s Christmas get-together.
  • (20) A 30th anniversary sequel to Raymond Briggs's beloved tale, its arrival brings grave fears of a sausage-fingered "reimagining", with wisecracking canine sidekicks, airborne high-fives and the unveiling of Olly Murs's new single, Flyin' (Don't Melt Tonight), taking a CGI shovel to a nation's memories.

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