wisecrack
What is the opposite of wisecrack? Here is what we hold, with its meaning and related words.
Noun — A quick, clever and slightly cheeky remark, often made at someone else's expense.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
A quick, clever and slightly cheeky remark, often made at someone else's expense.
“He could not resist a wisecrack about the manager's new haircut.”
How to use wisecrack
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
make a wisecrack
a wisecrack about
spare me the wisecracks
Informal, with a mid-twentieth-century American flavour that many speakers now find slightly dated.
Etymology
A compound of wise, in the slang sense of impudent or knowing, and crack, a sharp spoken remark; American in origin.
Full origin of wisecrack →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a wisecrack and a joke?
A joke is usually a self-contained story or setup built to get a laugh. A wisecrack is a one-off remark thrown into a conversation, and it nearly always has a needling or sarcastic edge that a plain joke need not have.
Is calling someone a wisecracker an insult?
It is mildly critical. It suggests someone who cannot resist a smart remark and does not always know when to stop, though it is far softer than calling them a smart alec.
