Meaning

A joke or quip..

Definitions by Sense

1. A joke or quip.
2. A prank or trick.
3. (intransitive) To jest; play tricks.
4. (transitive) To mock; deride.
5. (obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.

Example Sentences

[H]e clapped hand to thigh, and laughed and laughed until the air rang again. "Oho, a jape—a jape indeed!" he roared.

“Now I come to think of it, I suppose schooling isn't such a bad idea as long as he can have some japes and tomfoolery with his young cohorts.” “My love, it will be very good for him and very good for us.”

In London or New York in the late 1970s dada meant what it meant in Paris and New York at the end of the First World War: a not-quite-naked prank, a jape clothed in the barest g-string of aesthetic authority, a Bronx cheer in three-part harmony, Tzara's affirmation of the right “to piss and shit in different colors.”

Now the Lond of Egypt longeth to the Soudan, yet the Soudan longeth not to the Lond of Egypt. And when I say this, I do jape with words, and may hap ye understond me not.

Nay, brother, lay hand on him soon; / For he japed my wife, and made me cuckold.

I jape a wench […] it is better to jape a wenche than to do worce.

Thair is ane hundreth heir sittand by / That luiffis geaping als weill as I.

Sum gois so gymp in gyis / Or sche war kissit plane, / Sche leir be japit thryis.

Word Forms

• japes
• japing
• japed

Synonyms for jape

Related Words

When Should You Use Jape?

Use jape when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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