Word of the Day Archive
Friday November 17, 2000
raillery \RAY-luh-ree\ , noun:
1. Good-humored banter or teasing.
2. An instance of good-humored teasing; a jest.
I moved from one knot of people to another, surrounded by a kind of envious respect because of Sophie's interest in me, although subjected to a certain mordant raillery from some of this witty company.
-- Peter Brooks, World Elsewhere
Her raillery and mockery are fun -- but ultimately rather tiring, and tiresome.
-- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, "Eastward Ho!" review of Shards of Memory, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, New York Times, September 17, 1995
Raillery is from French raillerie, from Old French railler, "to tease, to mock."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for raillery
