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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
riposte
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Capote took such pleasure in his witty ripostes.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A riposte to that argument was provided by Sea Containers, the shipping group headed by James Sherwood.
▪ Clearly, if it is perceived as of comparatively minor concern, few countries would risk making a military riposte.
▪ Only asking was a standard riposte from most Walworth kids.
▪ The immediate riposte to Schwab's list is that this is a case of motherhood and apple pie.
▪ The photographer was lost for riposte, obvious though it should have been; instead he turned to run.
▪ The story was a riposte to a similar stunt pulled on Tony Benn by the Sun.
▪ This book provides an unanswerable riposte to such nostalgic nonsense.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Riposte

Ripost \Ri*post"\, Riposte \Ri*poste"\, n. [F. riposte.]

  1. In fencing, a return thrust after a parry.

  2. A quick and sharp refort; a repartee.
    --J. Morley.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
riposte

1707, "a quick thrust after parrying a lunge," a fencing term, from French riposte, by dissimilation from risposte (17c.), from Italian risposta "a reply," noun use of fem. past participle of rispondere "to respond," from Latin respondere (see respond). Sense of "sharp retort; quick, sharp reply," is first attested 1865. As a verb, 1851.

Wiktionary
riposte

n. 1 (context fencing English) a thrust given in return after parrying an attack. 2 a counter-attack in any combat or any sport vb. 1 (context fencing English) to attempt to hit an opponent after parrying an attack. 2 to respond quickly; particularly if the response is humorous.

WordNet
riposte
  1. n. a quick reply to a question or remark (especially a witty or critical one); "it brought a sharp rejoinder from the teacher" [syn: rejoinder, retort, return, replication, comeback, counter]

  2. v. answer back [syn: retort, come back, repay, return, rejoin]

Wikipedia
Riposte

In fencing, the riposte ( French for "retort") is an offensive action with the intent of hitting one's opponent, made by the fencer who has just parried an attack.

In everyday language, a riposte is synonymous with a retort and describes a quick and witty reply to an argument or an insult.

Riposte (album)

Riposte is the third album by Slovenly, released on 1987 through SST Records.

Usage examples of "riposte".

This denial, however, aroused an indignant riposte from the president of the court, reminding Babeuf of his letter to the Directory boasting that he was the leader of the Conspiracy.

For a moment or two the fight went on with no special feat, but so hearty became the action that Iberville, seeing Gering flag a little,--due somewhat to loss of blood, suddenly opened such a rapid attack on the advance that it was all Gering could do to parry, without thought of riposte, the successive lunges of the swift blade.

As already mentioned, this subplot provides a parodistic answer to attacks made on Dostoevsky in the past, and particularly a tit-for-tat riposte to Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Balcazar seldom invited any kind of riposte when he was in soliloquy mode.

Boariyi flashed an instant attack, countering his left-hand riposte as easily as before, then mockingly performed the same tactic, so they were southpaw to southpaw.

Borric, the two men evenly traded blows, answered every thrust with a counterthrust, every parry with a riposte.

Ecator came up and whirled through spears, horses, and imps in a lightning-fast forehand and backhand riposte.

Then Florian had to step in to translate, when Sir John himself and the ventriloquized Mignonne Mademoiselle Mitaine went well beyond their rehearsed French squabble into English insults and ripostes.

Though some still wore such old-style rapiers, few still fought with them, preferring the lighter, nimbler smallsword, for good reason: while a man with a rapier made one thrust, the bearer of a smallsword could parry and riposte twice, despite the difference in length.

As if in riposte, a pack of coralskippers isolated and surrounded a lone gunship, leaching it of its shields, then battering it with projectiles, kindling a deadly inferno that quickly engulfed the ship.

As he recoiled Schreuder came after him with a series of lightning ripostes that made his blade glint and glitter like a sunbeam.

Kapor ripostes that the telcos and the Internet are entirely different animals.

But Sharpe's counteraccusation was a clumsy riposte and Bautista scoffed at it.

Chareos blocked the first slash, leapt back from a sweeping slice which would have disembowelled him, then swept a flashing riposte that plunged into Logar's groin, severing the huge artery at the top of the inner thigh.

Jherek batted away a spear thrust, riposting and slicing the koalinth on the forehead so that blood ran down into its eyes.