Definition of "wit" []

• The natural ability to perceive and understand; intelligence. (noun)
• Keenness and quickness of perception or discernment; ingenuity. Often used in the plural: living by one's wits. (noun)
• Sound mental faculties; sanity: scared out of my wits. (noun)
• The ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner the relationship between seemingly incongruous or disparate things. (noun)
• One noted for this ability, especially one skilled in repartee. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I coulda took her wit dat, wit’ just my little finger even, and broke her in two."
• "And by ‘virtues intellectual’ are always understood such abilities of the mind as men praise, value, and desire should be in themselves, and go commonly under the name of a ‘good wit, ’ though the same word ‘wit’ be used also to distinguish one certain ability from the rest."
• "Some with _singular wit_, when he makes them suppose that the thing that they say or do is best; and therefore they will have no counsel of another who is better and abler than they; and this is a foul stinking pride; for such man would set his wit before all other."