0 past simple and past participle of retort
1 to answer someone quickly in an angry or funny way:
[ + speech ] "That doesn't concern you!" she retorted.
He retorted that inequality was a necessity, because it was an incentive to work harder, but was also natural.
Second, it may be retorted that it is the strong, not the truth-functional, reading of "if" that is an artifice.
The envoys retorted that this was inadequate.
He felt this so keenly that he retorted with a flat denial.
His remarks about fatuity were wrong and unjust and could be retorted on his own comments on the matter.
They have retorted, also with some justification, that closing tax loopholes effectively places extra taxes on business.
It may be retorted that, if this is so, the new clause would do no harm.
I retorted that professional writers tend to he frequent, if rather laborious, speakers, and that no one ever said that they spoke particularly well.