retort
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Contents
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈtɔɹt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈtɔːt/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
- Hyphenation: re‧tort
Etymology 1[edit]
Borrowed from Latin retortus, from retorquēre (“to be forced to twist back”).
Noun[edit]
retort (plural retorts)
Translations[edit]
sharp or witty reply
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Verb[edit]
retort (third-person singular simple present retorts, present participle retorting, simple past and past participle retorted)
- To say something sharp or witty in answer to a remark or accusation.
- 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Ayrsham Mystery[1]:
- “It is a pity,” he retorted with aggravating meekness, “that they do not use a little common sense. The case resembles that of Columbus' egg, and is every bit as simple. […]”
- To make a remark which reverses an argument upon its originator; to return, as an argument, accusation, censure, or incivility.
- to retort the charge of vanity
- Milton
- And with retorted scorn his back he turned.
- To bend or curve back.
- a retorted line
- Southey
- With retorted head, pruned themselves as they floated.
- To throw back; to reverberate; to reflect.
- Shakespeare
- As when his virtues, shining upon others, / Heat them and they retort that heat again / To the first giver.
- Shakespeare
Synonyms[edit]
- (sharp reply): comeback, rejoinder, back answer
Translations[edit]
To say something sharp or witty in answer to a remark or accusation
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to retort; to throw back — see return
Etymology 2[edit]
Noun[edit]
retort (plural retorts)
- (chemistry) A flask with a rounded base and a long neck that is bent down and tapered, used to heat a liquid for distillation.
- 1893, Conan Doyle, Arthur, The Naval Treaty, Norton, page 670:
- A large curved retort was boiling furiously in the bluish flame of a Bunsen burner, and the distilled drops were condensing into a two-litre measure.
- A airtight vessel in which material is subjected to high temperatures in the chemical industry or as part of an industrial manufacturing process, especially during the smelting and forging of metal.
- A pressure cooker
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
flask used for distillation
Verb[edit]
retort (third-person singular simple present retorts, present participle retorting, simple past and past participle retorted)
- (transitive) To heat in a retort.
