The Collaborative International Dictionary
Banter \Ban"ter\ (b[a^]n"t[~e]r), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bantered (b[a^]n"t[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Bantering.] [Prob. corrupted fr. F. badiner to joke, or perh. fr. E. bandy to beat to and fro. See Badinage, and cf. Barter fr. OF. barater.]
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To address playful good-natured ridicule to, -- the person addressed, or something pertaining to him, being the subject of the jesting; to rally; as, he bantered me about my credulity.
Hag-ridden by my own fancy all night, and then bantered on my haggard looks the next day.
--W. Irving. -
To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like. [Archaic]
If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them.
--Chatham. -
To delude or trick, -- esp. by way of jest. [Obs.]
We diverted ourselves with bantering several poor scholars with hopes of being at least his lordship's chaplain.
--De Foe. To challenge or defy to a match. [Colloq. Southern and Western U. S.]
Wiktionary
That teases n. 1 teasing 2 joking; jesting v
(present participle of banter English)
WordNet
adj. cleverly amusing in tone; "a bantering tone"; "facetious remarks"; "tongue-in-cheek advice" [syn: facetious, tongue-in-cheek]
Usage examples of "bantering".
And every creature has a right to security from the banterings peculiar to the humourists of a succeeding age.
Stanton, on the contrary, grew more undisguised and demonstrative in his attentions, although he aimed to conceal his feeling under the humorous and bantering style of address that was habitual with him.
There was no less return on her part of his light bantering style of conversation.
They were high-pitched, feminine, and there seemed to be three of them, bantering cheerfully back and forth.
Suddenly the guildmaster recognized the truth of Regis's banterings with the cat.
Suddenly the guildmaster recognized the truth of Regis’s banterings with the cat.
She had lived most of her nineteen years in a baseball atmosphere, but accustomed as she was to baseball talk and the peculiar banterings and bickerings of the players, there were times when it seemed all Greek.