Definition of "sarcasm" in English

noun

1. (uncountable) Use of acerbic language to mock or convey contempt, often using verbal irony and (in speech) often marked by overemphasis and sneering.

   • 2015, Alex Kozinski, Demuth v. County of Los Angeles, 798 F.3d 837, 839 (9th Cir. 2015). While challenging someone equipped with a badge, handcuffs and a gun to “arrest me” was unwise on Demuth’s part, we fail to see what legal difference her statement makes. Demuth certainly could not authorize her own arrest and, in any event, Li could not reasonably have believed that Demuth was volunteering for handcuffs. Demuth was obviously employing “a literary device known as sarcasm.” [Citation omitted.] Her statement was a snide way of refusing; no reasonable officer could have thought otherwise.

2. (countable) An individual act of the above.