the sophisticated badinage of the characters in plays by Oscar Wilde
Recent Examples on the WebThe film, directed with an alluring blend of badinage and upper-crust sensuality by Emma Holly Jones, is based on a novel by Suzanne Allain (who wrote the screenplay), which was published in 2020 and designed to be a playful riff on Jane Austen. Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 1 July 2022 The banality of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s adapted script suggests satire, yet the film is fairly humorless, despite the musicians’ profane badinage. Armond White, National Review, 1 Jan. 2021 The result is a system that favors cable-ready wisecracks and viral badinage over substantive policy discussions. Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 31 July 2020 Ironic hyperbole was a form of badinage that came easily to Smith. Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2020 And the fact that this is where supporters have ended up after mere hours of social media badinage tells you just how weak the defense is. Megan Mcardle, Alaska Dispatch News, 11 July 2017 Too often there’s an emotional monotony to this production, which flattens the narrative into a rather stale bedroom farce with barbed marital badinage and cliche clinches. Karen D'souza, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2017 Scientists have begun decoding the complex badinage between cactuses and pollinating bats. Natalie Angier, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2017 The hosts of Morning Joe, which debuted in 2007 and more or less dominated the cable-news chatter machine ever since, have long been known for their highly flirtatious office-spouse badinage, squabbling and then making up. Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 4 May 2017 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, "foolishness, stupidity," from badiner "to banter, jest, play the fool" (verbal derivative of badin "silly, foolish," as noun, "fool, simpleton," borrowed from Occitan, from badar "to have the mouth wide open, gape"—going back to Vulgar Latin *batāre, perhaps of imitative origin—+ -in, adjective suffix) + -age-age