reparteenoun/ˌɹɛpɑɹˈteɪ/

• 1

  A swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing.

  • Many persons must laugh when a great person or an acknowledged wit says a clever thing, such as a smart repartee, or a really good pun.
  • Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany[…]
• 2

  A conversation marked by a series of witty retorts.

  • Each meeting is free-flowing and the discussion less arch, less cut-and-thrust than the repartee at parties thrown in the book by the aristocratic `Guermantes family—although Proust teachs you to look for the unspoken in life as in literature.
• 3

  A skill in replying swiftly and wittily.

  • The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
  • Another millstone around the NDP’s neck was the relative lack of seasoned parliamentarians in the government front bench who were skilled enough at repartee to take on the Tory veterans across the floor.

reparteeverb/ˌɹɛpɑɹˈteɪ/

• 1

  To reply with a repartee.

  • Aubrey speaks of him as 'incomparable at reparteeing, the bull that was bayted, his witt beinge most sparkling, when most set on and provoked.'
• 2

  To have a repartee (a conversation marked by witty retorts or replies).

  • To see them together, friendly, reparteeing, chummy, would turn your stomach--Barbara so exquisite and high-born, and the man, his eyes full of evil fires, sitting like a great toad on the model's chair.