boutade
1
9.9
- noun
- /buˈteɪd/
- Literature
- The comedian's latest show included a spontaneous boutade that caught the audience off guard.
Examples
-
During the meeting, she surprised everyone with a clever boutade that lightened the mood.
-
The form-content identity does not exist even where it would seem inevitable, namely, in literature; for, as Gabriel Ferrater said in a famous boutade, we cannot mistake Dante's terza rima for the torments of hell.
Academic text (1991) -
The recommendation is only valid as a reaction against too oppressively moralistic a society; it is what the French call a boutade, a deliberately paradoxical half-truth, but it degenerates into nonsense outside a context of rigid conventionalism.
Academic text (1990) -
His humorous boutade about the weather had everyone laughing.
Synonyms
19
6.4
A short, clever thing someone says to make people laugh
1
6.5
An act that teases or tricks someone as a joke
1
8.6
A short funny remark or action that makes people smile
Antonyms
How Witty
Surface Forms
Etymology
Boutade comes from French and uses bout, a word that meant a quick 'push' or sudden movement. So a boutade is a sudden, impulsive action or witty remark meant to surprise or amuse.