jape

Word family

jape /dʒeɪp/ noun [countableC] British EnglishBrE old-fashioned

TRICK/DECEIVEa trick or joke 把戏；玩笑

Examples from the Corpus

jape• What a jape it would be, declared Raphaelo, to gain access to the heat sink.• What larks and japes persuaded this audience to collapse in convulsions is a mystery as dark as the Druids' Runes.• The not unfamiliar childish jape of depositing a stink bomb in her locker caused her great anguish.• The brand might be no mark of honour at all - but a culminating cruel humiliating jape.• But although many pirates see it all as a jolly jape, people in the software business are getting worried.• But even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point; and Blast had none.• No explanation for the fall was ever given, though Sir Thomas believed he may have been involved in some stupid jape.

Origin jape

(1300-1400) jape “to joke, make fun of someone” ((14-20 centuries)), from Old French japer “to cry out like a dog”

Chinese

Corpus

BNC: 35517 COCA: 43504

jape