wit
/wɪt/ noun B2- Sanity. · He's gone completely out of his wits.
- The senses. · Keep your wits about you.
- Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning. · Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.
- The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints. · My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.
- Intelligence; common sense. · The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!
- Humour, especially when clever or quick. · The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.
- A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty. · Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?
Plural wits
From the library
The Fox quickly picked it up, and thus addressed the Crow: “My good Crow, your voice is right enough, but your wit is wanting.”
“And yet there should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation.
It’s worth quite a little fortune to any man who gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits’ end what to do with the money.
That left me an orphan and folks were at their wits’ end, so Mrs.
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