waggeryn.
/ˈwaɡ(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈwæɡəri/ 1. The action or disposition of a wag; drollery, jocularity; in early use chiefly, mischievous drollery, practical joking.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > laughter > causing laughter > mischievous or practical joking > [noun]
waggery1594
knavery1600
joking1670
leg-pulling1879
1594 J. Lyly Mother Bombie ii. i. sig. C Now if I could meete with Risio, it were a world of waggery.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Drolerie, rye, waggerie, good roguerie.
1650 A. Cowley Guardian i. i. sig. A3v The Colonel's as full of waggery as an egge's full of meat.
a1657 H. Cholmley Mem. (1870) 22 I.., out of folly and waggery, began to kick one of them.
1737 Chesterfield in C'tess Suffolk's Lett. (1824) II. 163 Since which he has contented himself with a little general waggery, as occasion offers, such as snatching the bread and butter out of a girl's hand [etc.].
1762 S. Foote Orators i. 17 The misapprehension of the second agent, or the ignorance, or waggery of the third.
1824 M. R. Mitford Our Village I. 152 He was so good a fellow, so full of fun and waggery!
1832 T. Creevey in H. Maxwell Creevey Papers (1904) II. x. 243 She has a great deal of natural waggery.
1858 J. Brown Locke & Sydenham in Horæ Subs. 420 Excited by..the waggery of his more intellectual neighbours.
1894 J. Knight D. Garrick xiii. 252 One friend..perpetrated a harmless piece of waggery on the subject.
2. A waggish action or speech; in early use, a piece of mischievous jesting; a practical joke.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > laughter > causing laughter > mischievous or practical joking > [noun] > instance of
jest1578
jig1592
wilec1600
waggery1604
pleasance1668
quiz1795
practical joke1804
skite1804
skit1815
galliardise1842
leg-pull1893
rannygazoo1896
1604 N. Breton Grimellos Fortunes (Grosart) 9/2 If I should tell you the tenth part of the waggeries, that I passed through.
1655 tr. C. Sorel Comical Hist. Francion iii. 69 I must needs passe by severall pretty waggeries, which I committed during this my Non-age.
1689 R. Milward Selden's Table-talk 47 An Ape when he has done some waggery.
1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 183 John Birkenhead..pleased the generality of Readers with his waggeries and buffoonries.
1778 F. Burney Let. 8 Dec. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1994) III. 187 In most of Our successful comedies, there are frequent lively Freedoms (and waggeries that cannot be called licentious, neither).
1850 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis II. liii In fact they indulged in a hundred sports, jocularities, waggeries and petits jeux innocens.
1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate III. vii. 171 Not being a man given to little waggeries.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1921; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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