Glossary

wit

Subject: 

  • English First Additional Language
  • English Home Language

sharp (clever) humour. Wit is not necessarily biting or angry, but it can be. Shakespeare wrote that Brevity is the soul of wit (Hamlet). Oscar Wilde was thought to be a great wit. His plays include lines such as this description of a cynic: A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing (Lady Windemereâ??s Fan). Once when Wilde arrived in New York, he told the customs officer, I have nothing to declare except my genius.