Literary notes about Retort (AI summary)
The word "retort" carries a dual life in literature, functioning both as a sharp verbal comeback and as a term for a specialized vessel. In dialogue, it often signifies a witty or pointed response that reveals a character's quick mind or underlying tension, as when a character fires back with a clever rejoinder ([1], [2], [3], [4]). At times it appears in heated exchanges where silence or the lack of a ready retort speaks volumes about a character's internal state ([5], [6], [7]). Meanwhile, in more technical or historically detailed contexts, "retort" refers to a piece of equipment used for distillation or chemical processing, emphasizing the meticulous precision of experimentation or production methods ([8], [9], [10], [11]). This versatile term, therefore, enriches narratives by lending both the sharp edge of human dialogue and the exactness of scientific apparatus to the texture of a work.
- “It’s clever all right,” was the retort, “but it’s fair, too.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - “No need to, to know you’re lyin’,” was the retort.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - You?” “Are you not?” was the fierce retort.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - The retort silenced Matthew if it did not convince him.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - This, I confess, however, do trouble me, for that he seemed to speak it as a quick retort, and it must sure be Will.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - Chichikov bit his lip, and stood at a loss for a retort.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol - Are you crazy?" My tumultuous emotion prevented any retort; I sped silently away.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - To one end of the tube is adapted a glass retort with water in it; and the other end communicates with a receiver placed on the water-bath.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - We put our pile of quicksilver balls into an iron retort that had a pipe leading from it to a pail of water, and then applied a roasting heat.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - This retort must be placed over a furnace with four draughts, for the heat must be raised to the fourth degree.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - A large curved retort was boiling furiously in the bluish flame of a Bunsen burner, and the distilled drops were condensing into a two-litre measure.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
