Wit
noun
1.
the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure.
Synonyms: drollery, facetiousness, waggishness, repartee.
2.
speech or writing showing such perception and expression.
Synonyms: banter, joking, witticism, quip, raillery, badinage, persiflage; bon mot.
3.
a person having or noted for such perception and expression.
Synonyms: wag, jester, epigrammatist, satirist.
4.
understanding, intelligence, or sagacity; astuteness.
Synonyms: wisdom, sense, mind.
5.
Usually, wits.
powers of intelligent observation, keen perception, ingenious contrivance, or the like; mental acuity, composure, and resourcefulness:
using one’s wits to get ahead.
Synonyms: cleverness, cunning, wisdom, insight, perspicacity, sacaciousness, acumen.
mental faculties; senses:
to lose one’s wits; frightened out of one’s wits.
Synonyms: mind, sanity; brains, marbles.
Idioms
6.
at one’s wit’s end, at the end of one’s ideas or mental resources; perplexed:
My two-year-old won’t eat anything but pizza, and I’m at my wit’s end.
7.
keep / have one’s wits about one, to remain alert and observant; be prepared for or equal to anything:
to keep your wits about you in a crisis.
8.
live by one’s wits, to provide for oneself by employing ingenuity or cunning; live precariously:
We traveled around the world, living by our wits.
verb (used with or without object), present singular 1st person wot, 2nd wost, 3rd wot, present plural wit or wite; past and past participle wist; present participle witting.
1.
Archaic. to know.
Idioms
2.
to wit, that is to say; namely:
It was the time of the vernal equinox, to wit, the beginning of spring.
noun
1.
the talent or quality of using unexpected associations between contrasting or disparate words or ideas to make a clever humorous effect
2.
speech or writing showing this quality
3.
a person possessing, showing, or noted for such an ability, esp in repartee
4.
practical intelligence (esp in the phrase have the wit to)
5.
(Scot & Northern English, dialect) information or knowledge (esp in the phrase get wit of)
6.
(archaic) mental capacity or a person possessing it
7.
(obsolete) the mind or memory
verb
1.
(archaic) to be or become aware of (something)
adverb
2.
to wit, that is to say; namely (used to introduce statements, as in legal documents)
wish list
WIT
witness (shortwave transmission)
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