PLEASANTRY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pleasantry mean? 

• PLEASANTRY (noun)
  The noun PLEASANTRY has 1 sense:

1. an agreeable or amusing remark

  Familiarity information: PLEASANTRY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLEASANTRY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An agreeable or amusing remark

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

they exchange pleasantries

Hypernyms ("pleasantry" is a kind of...):

jest; jocularity; joke (activity characterized by good humor)

 Context examples 

I called you back for some more serious purpose than to mix you up with our little domestic pleasantries.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Elizabeth tried to join in her father's pleasantry, but could only force one most reluctant smile.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“See that you keep your throat whole for the drinking of it archer,” cried a voice, and the crowd laughed at the rough pleasantry.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Is this a joke, Mr. Holmes? It is hardly a subject for pleasantry.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But between inner vision and outward pleasantry he found time to watch the theatre crowd streaming by.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I really thought it was all over with Mr. Omer, after he had uttered this libellous pleasantry.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He talked with fluency and spirit—and there was an archness and pleasantry in his manner which interested, though it was hardly understood by her.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

This he took in good part, and was really pleased, nodding his head with direful foreknowledge and mystery, until George Leach, the erstwhile cabin-boy, ventured some rough pleasantry on the subject.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

No, no, he said; you must not walk here; the dogs are too fierce; and then he added, with what he evidently meant for grim pleasantry—for he looked round to catch the approving smile of the rest—and you may have enough of such matters before you go to sleep.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Fanny went to her every two or three days: it seemed a kind of fascination: she could not be easy without going, and yet it was without loving her, without ever thinking like her, without any sense of obligation for being sought after now when nobody else was to be had; and deriving no higher pleasure from her conversation than occasional amusement, and that often at the expense of her judgment, when it was raised by pleasantry on people or subjects which she wished to be respected.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)