Library / English Dictionary

JEST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Activity characterized by good humor

Synonyms:

jest; jocularity; joke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("jest" is a kind of...):

diversion; recreation (an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jest"):

drollery; waggery (a quaint and amusing jest)

leg-pull; leg-pulling (as a joke: trying to make somebody believe something that is not true)

pleasantry (an agreeable or amusing remark)

Derivation:

jest (act in a funny or teasing way)

jest (tell a joke; speak humorously)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter

Example:

even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point

Synonyms:

gag; jape; jest; joke; laugh

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("jest" is a kind of...):

humor; humour; wit; witticism; wittiness (a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter)

Meronyms (parts of "jest"):

gag line; laugh line; punch line; tag line (the point of a joke or humorous story)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jest"):

belly laugh; howler; riot; scream; sidesplitter; thigh-slapper; wow (a joke that seems extremely funny)

blue joke; blue story; dirty joke; dirty story (an indelicate joke)

ethnic joke (a joke at the expense of some ethnic group)

funny; funny remark; funny story; good story (an account of an amusing incident (usually with a punch line))

in-joke (a joke that is appreciated only by members of some particular group of people)

one-liner (a one-line joke)

shaggy dog story (a long rambling joke whose humor derives from its pointlessness)

sick joke (a joke in bad taste)

sight gag; visual joke (a joke whose effect is achieved by visual means rather than by speech (as in a movie))

Derivation:

jest (act in a funny or teasing way)

jest (tell a joke; speak humorously)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Act in a funny or teasing way

Synonyms:

jest; joke

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "jest" is one way to...):

act; behave; do (behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "jest"):

antic; clown; clown around (act as or like a clown)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

jest (activity characterized by good humor)

jest (a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter)

jester (a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the Middle Ages)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tell a joke; speak humorously

Example:

He often jokes even when he appears serious

Synonyms:

jest; joke

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "jest" is one way to...):

communicate; intercommunicate (transmit thoughts or feelings)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "jest"):

gag; quip (make jokes or quips)

arse around; fool; fool around; horse around (indulge in horseplay)

pun (make a play on words)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Also:

jest at (subject to laughter or ridicule)

Derivation:

jest (activity characterized by good humor)

jest (a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter)

jester (a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the Middle Ages)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Charles and Mary still talked on in the same style; he, half serious and half jesting, maintaining the scheme for the play, and she, invariably serious, most warmly opposing it, and not omitting to make it known that, however determined to go to Camden Place herself, she should not think herself very well used, if they went to the play without her.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Holmes’s ideas of humour are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no notice of his ill-timed jest—indeed, I had already reached Montpellier in my pursuit of the maid, Marie, before his message came.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It was but such a jest as we play upon each other, and, if you must have it so, I am sorry for it.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You may skirmish with Miss Dartle, or try to hide your sympathies in jest from me, but I know better.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I read suspicion there and annoyance, but no jest.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Henry had certainly been only in jest in what he had told her that morning.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It has been a standing jest in the family that nothing could ever wake me during the night.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Excitement instantly seized the whole party: a running fire of raillery and jests was proceeding when Sam returned.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:—"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own."

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

With shout and jest and snatch of song they streamed from the room, and all was peaceful once more in the “Rose de Guienne.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)