witful

English

Etymology

From Middle English witful (“wise; sagacious; cunning; ingenious”), equivalent to wit +‎ -ful.

Adjective

witful (comparative more witful, superlative most witful)

1. Full of or possessing wit; wise; sensible
   • 1613, George Chapman, The Mask of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn:

     'Tis passing miraculous that your dull and blind worship should so suddenly turn both sightful and witful

   • 1917, Arthur Frederick Sheldon, The Science of Business:

     Do not directly ask him to buy. As one master salesman whom the author knows puts it, to do so is "brutal." It is, to say the least, not witful, and what is not witful is not good salesmanship.

   • 1998, Andy Warhol, a: A Novel:

     […] the most witful, th-that it's hopeless I'm not witful.

   • 2008, Jesse Ball, Samedi the Deafness - Page 135:

     l love you, she said. l find it splendid to have dropped you like a witful lobster into this boiling pot.

   • 2012, Michael Crichton, Sphere - Page 260:

     I AM LIKING HARRY. HIS MANIFESTATIONS ARE RED. THEY ARE WITFUL. "Witful?" WITFUL = FULL OF WIT? "I see," Harry said. "He thinks we're funny." FUNNY = FULL OF FUN? "Not exactly," Norman said. "We entities have the concept of . . ." He trailed off. How was he going to explain "funny"?

   • 2013, Valerie Stephens, Stillborn To Life - Page 5:

     And some fear hides beneath the guise of all things physically-affecting and effecting which we try with an enthusiasm unsurpassed and a witful dexterity unrivalled, to craft into some spurious raison d'être.

Antonyms

• witless

Derived terms

• witfully
• witfulness

References

• “witful”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.