| Library / English Dictionary |
PLEASANTRY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An agreeable or amusing remark
Example:
they exchange pleasantries
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("pleasantry" is a kind of...):
jest; jocularity; joke (activity characterized by good humor)
Context examples:
He, who had always inspired in herself a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
I was not aware that it was necessary to ask your permission before smiling at a harmless pleasantry.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
With a bow to the Abbot, which had in it perhaps more pleasantry than reverence, the novice strode across to the carved prie-dieu which had been set apart for him, and stood silent and erect with his hand upon the gold bell which was used in the private orisons of the Abbot's own household.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I tell ye that when they got here they'd be jommlin' an' jostlin' one another that way that it 'ud be like a fight up on the ice in the old days, when we'd be at one another from daylight to dark, an' tryin' to tie up our cuts by the light of the aurora borealis." This was evidently local pleasantry, for the old man cackled over it, and his cronies joined in with gusto.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
He laughed sonorously at his own conceit, for, though he had little sense of humor, the crudest pleasantry from his own lips moved him always to roars of appreciation.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
