The AI-powered English dictionary
plural wiseacres
One who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart. quotations examples
That other class of wiseacres who twist prophecy in such a manner as to make it promise the destruction and desolation of the same city, use judgement just as bad, since the city is in a very flourishing condition now, unhappily for them.
1869, Mark Twain, the Innocents Abroad, Random House, published 2003, pages 298–299
(obsolete) A learned or wise man. quotations
A fool's paradise is better than a wiseacre's purgatory.
1776, George Colman, The Deuce is in him. A farce of two acts, page 24
Peter Gower, a Grecian, journied for cunning in Egypt, and in Syria, and in every land where the Venetians had planted Masonry; and winning entrance into all lodges of Masons, he learned much, and returned and dwelt in Grecia Magna; watching and becoming a mighty wiseacre, and greatly renowned, and here he framed a grat lodge at Groton, (Crotona. Mr. Locke,) and maked many Masons; wherefrom, in process of time, the art passed into England.
1828, Henry Dana Ward, Free Masonry, page 46
At their village the woman consulted the local wiseacre, explaining the difficulties her son-in-law was creating.
1970, Daniel Halpern, Antæus, page 40
third-person singular simple present wiseacres, present participle wiseacring, simple past and past participle wiseacred
To act like a wiseacre; to wisecrack. examples