banters

Verb

banter (third-person singular simple present banters, present participle bantering, simple past and past participle bantered)

1. (intransitive) To engage in banter or playful conversation.
2. (intransitive) To play or do something amusing.
3. (transitive) To tease (someone) mildly.
   • Here comes the muſty trader, running over vvith remonſtrances. I muſt banter the cit.1760 January 28 (first performance), [Samuel] Foote, The Minor, a Comedy. […], London: […] J. Coote, […]; G[eorge] Kearsly, […]; T[homas] Davies, […], published 1760, →OCLC, Act II, page 56

   Synonyms:

   kid, wind up, chaff

4. (transitive) To joke about; to ridicule (a trait, habit, etc.).
   • June 1804, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
     If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them.
5. (transitive) To delude or trick; to play a prank upon.
   • [W]e diverted ourſelves vvith bantering ſeveral other poor Scholars, vvith hopes of being at leaſt his Lordſhip's Chaplains and putting on a Scarf; […]1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC...
6. (Southern, US, Western, colloquial, transitive) To challenge to a match.

See all 9 meanings of banter