joshing
Light-hearted leg-pulling
Joshing is good-natured teasing or joking around: I'm just joshing you.
The word suggests playful ribbing rather than mean-spirited mockery.
Someone who's joshing isn't serious—they're having fun at your expense in a friendly way.
Quit joshing and tell me the truth.
Affectionate verbal teasing
- teasingPlayful, mild ridicule
- railleryHumorous, affectionate teasing
- quippingMaking witty remarks
- wisecrackingMaking flippant jokes
needling · razzing · kidding · chaffing · twitting · gibing · roasting · jiving
Cheerful and without worry
- playfulInclined toward fun
- good-naturedHaving a friendly temperament
- jovialCheerful and friendly
- jocularInclined to jest
merry · frisky · impish · mischievous · sportive · whimsical · blithe · cheerful
Scornfully imitating or ridiculing
- tauntingInsulting to provoke
- hecklingHostile audience interruption
- deridingExpressing scornful contempt
- scoffingMocking with contempt
jeering · ridiculing · lampooning · sneering · sarcasm · irony · satirizing · parodying
ribbing
Affectionate verbal teasing
wisecracking · needling · razzing · kidding · chaffing · twitting · gibing · roasting · jiving · funning
lighthearted
Cheerful and without worry
- playfulInclined toward fun
- good-naturedHaving a friendly temperament
- jovialCheerful and friendly
jocular · merry · frisky · impish · mischievous · sportive · whimsical · blithe · cheerful · tongue-in-cheek
mocking
Scornfully imitating or ridiculing
- tauntingInsulting to provoke
- hecklingHostile audience interruption
- deridingExpressing scornful contempt
scoffing · jeering · ridiculing · lampooning · sneering · sarcasm · irony · satirizing · parodying · caricaturing
- humorjoke, comedy, comic, funny, hilarious
- fooling aroundkidding, fooling, teasing, pranking, goofing
- mischiefmischief, hijinks, antics, pranks, antic
- teasingtease, teasing, rib, ribbing, razz
- banterbanter, teasing, ribbing, kidding, quips
- messing aroundfooling, goofing, goofing off, horsing around, messing with
joshinginsulting
Showing contempt through words
mocking · deriding · ridiculing · belittling · taunting
joshingseriousness
Earnest, weighty demeanor
earnestness · straight talk · leveling · speaking frankly · solemnity
joking, jokes, jester, jesting, jokingly, josh, jocularity, jestingly, joshed