RETORT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Retort

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/rˈitˌɔrt/ Listen

Retort

noun

A quick reply to a question or remark (especially a witty or critical one). Synonyms: comeback, counter, rejoinder, replication, return, riposte.

A vessel where substances are distilled or decomposed by heat.

verb

(past & past part. retorted; pres. part. retorting)

Answer back. Synonyms: come back, rejoin, repay, return, riposte.

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"Retort" Quotes from Famous Books

... time the rough joke of some passing wit interrupted the song. Then the reservists would break out into a loud laugh and call back some still more spicy retort. But they always took up their jingling refrain, repeating the childish words again and again, and jogging along clumsily, keeping ...

— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein

... up his pen and wrote the retort which shook the old State from mountain to sea, and which enhanced the chances of the white supremacy advocates who were then planning for an uprising in November. "Punish sin because it is sin," concluded the editor, "and ...

— Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly - A Story of the Wilmington Massacre. • David Bryant Fulton

... on this subject to thee, friend Latimer, who, I doubt not, art trained to believe that courage is displayed and honour attained, not by doing and suffering as becomes a man that which fate calls us to suffer and justice commands us to do, but because thou art ready to retort violence for violence, and considerest the lightest insult as a sufficient cause for the spilling of blood, nay, the taking of life. But, leaving these points of controversy to a more fit season, let us see what our basket of provision contains; for in truth, friend Latimer, ...

— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... A hot retort was on my lips, but I had no wish to offend my guest, so I smiled and observed that I had frequently indulged in unconscious ...

— The Enchanted Typewriter • John Kendrick Bangs

... of the philosophers rather chose to retort the injury of a smart reply, than thus to disarm it with respect to themselves. They shew that it stung them, though at the same time they had the address to make their aggressors suffer with them. Of this kind is Aristotle's reply to one who pursued him with long and bitter invectives. ...

— The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant • John Hamilton Moore

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