English

Noun

badinage ‎(countable and uncountable, plural badinages)

1. Playful raillery; banter.
   • 1882, W. S. Gilbert, Iolanthe, Act I,

     Your badinage so airy, / Your manner arbitrary, / Are out of place / When face to face / With an influential Fairy.

   • 1893, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, The Jew, translated by Linda Da Kowalewska, London: Heinemann, Chapter XIII, p. 254,

     " […] God knows that if you were only safely married to Jacob I would not care how much you saw of Henri; but as you are not, I think these badinages are very ill-timed and take your mind off the principal business."

   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Chapter XXXII,

     […] take the word 'barnshoot'—a corruption of the Hindustani word bahinchut. A vile and unforgivable insult in India, this word is a piece of gentle badinage in England.

   • 1994, Lawrence G. DiTillio, Babylon 5, "Spider in the Web", 13m 19s

     [Talia:] You'll forgive me if I'm not in the mood for your usual badinage.

   • 2005, The Times (London), October 31

     "No, this was more a night of bellowed barbed badinage, boisterous BS, outrageous declamations and defiant roars."

   • 2007, Alessandro Bertolotti, Books of Nudes, Abrams, p. 92,

     Described at the time as "photographic badinages" the photographs in Die Erotik in der Photographie include one of a nude model stretched out languidly on a bearskin […]

Translations

Verb

badinage ‎(third-person singular simple present badinages, present participle badinaging, simple past and past participle badinaged)

1. To engage in badinage or playful banter.

Translations

French

Etymology

badin +‎ -age

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.di.naʒ/

Noun

badinage m ‎(plural badinages)

1. joke; gag; wind-up
2. (figuratively) a trivial, simple task