wit

noun

1. (countable, plural-normally, uncountable)Sanity.

   “He's gone completely out of his wits.”

2. (countable, plural-normally, uncountable)The senses.

   “Keep your wits about you.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.

   “Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.”

4. (countable, uncountable)The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.

   “My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.”

5. (countable, uncountable)Intelligence; common sense.

   “The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!”

   “I gif the witt, I gif the strenght, / of all thou sees, of brede & lengthe; / thou shall be wonder wise. / Myrth and Ioy to haue at will, / All thi likyng to fulfill, / and dwell in paradise.”

   “Wel, wel (Meander) thou art deepely read: And hauing thee, I haue a iewell ſure: Go on my Lord, and giue your charge I ſay, Thy wit wil make vs Conquerors to day.”

   “O, learn to read what silent love hath writ: To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.”

6. (countable, uncountable)Humour, especially when clever or quick.

   “The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.”

   “Wit is just as much put upon—blamed for a thousand impertinences over which it would not have held for a moment its glittering shield; it is like the radiant fairy doomed to wander over earth, concealed and transformed, and only allowed on rare occasions to shine forth in its true and sparkling form. It is well that wit is an impalpable and ethereal substance, or it must long since have evaporated in indignation at that peculiarly wretched and mistaken race, its imitators.”

   “The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.”

   “Evelyn Peters: "Don't worry, Marge. Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing".”

   “[…] the cemetery – which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’ […]”

7. (countable, uncountable)A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.

   “Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?”

   “Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]”

   “[…] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]”

8. (Australia, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of waterfowl identification test.

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To know, be aware of (constructed with of when used intransitively).

   “You committed terrible actions — to wit, murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.”

   “They are meddling in matters that men should not wit of.”

   “Truly, said fair Elaine, I shall do all that I may do, for as fain would I know and wit where he is become as you or any of his kin, or queen Guenever, and cause great enough have I thereto as well as any other. And wit ye well, said fair Elaine to Sir Bors, I would lose my life for him rather than he should be hurt.”

   “And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.”

   “but soon having wist How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day Are symbols also in some deeper way, She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.”

prep

1. (Southern-US, alt-of, pronunciation-spelling)Pronunciation spelling of with.