noun
1 clever use of words
ADJECTIVE
▪ great
▪ quick , ready
▪ acerbic , barbed , biting , caustic , dry , mordant , rapier , razor-sharp , sarcastic , sardonic , sharp , sly , wicked , wry
▪ gentle , self-deprecating
▪ dazzling ( esp. BrE ), sparkling
▪ verbal
VERB + WIT
▪ have
▪
He has plenty of ~ and imagination.
▪
He had a dry ~. ( BrE )
PHRASES
▪ ~ and wisdom
▪
a book full of the ~ and wisdom of his 30 years in politics
2 intelligence
ADJECTIVE
▪ native
▪
She had to use all her native ~ to convince the police.
VERB + WIT
▪ have
▪
I hope he has the ~ to take the key with him.
▪ use
PHRASES
▪ beyond the ~ of man (= impossible) ( esp. BrE )
▪
It should not be beyond the ~ of man to resolve this dispute.
3 wits ability to think quickly
VERB + WITS
▪ use
▪ have ( esp. AmE )
▪
I hope you had the ~s to apologize.
▪ gather , recover
▪
She couldn't seem to gather her ~s and tell us what had happened.
▪ sharpen
▪ match
▪
The game allows you to match ~s with a computer criminal.
PHRASES
▪ a battle of ~s
▪
The strike developed into a battle of ~s between management and workers.
▪ have your ~s about you , keep your ~s about you
▪
They do tough interviews, so you'll need to have your ~s about you.
▪ pit your ~s against sb ( esp. BrE )
▪
Celebrity teams pit their ~s against each other in this lively quiz show.
▪ scare the ~s out of sb
▪
The latest news has scared the ~s out of investors.
▪
I was scared out of my ~s!
▪ wits' end
▪
I'm at my wits' end trying to cope with his moods.