(n.) Something done or said in order to amuse; a joke; a witticism; a jocose or sportive remark or phrase. See Synonyms under Jest, v. i.
(v. i.) The object of laughter or sport; a laughingstock.
(v. i.) To take part in a merrymaking; -- especially, to act in a mask or interlude.
(v. i.) To make merriment by words or actions; to joke; to make light of anything.
Example Sentences:
(1) Dawn Powell: A Time to Be Born (1942) Joseph Heller: Catch-22 (1961) Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions (1973) David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest (1996) The American comedy, generally speaking, is a scatological thing, or a repository of racial prejudice or gender stereotypes.
(2) Defining what constitutes merely a jest and what is of a "menacing character" has not been easy for the judges.
(3) In Hall’s farewell season of Shakespeare’s late romances in 1988, he led the company alongside Michael Bryant and Eileen Atkins , playing a clenched and possessed Leontes in The Winter’s Tale; an Italianate, jesting Iachimo in Cymbeline; and a gloriously drunken Trinculo in The Tempest (he played Prospero for Adrian Noble at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in 2012).
(4) The 2010 book was written by Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky, and is what it says on the tin: an account of a road trip with the author as he went across the US promoting his 1,100-page novel Infinite Jest, recalling the conversations the pair have and the fame that Foster Wallace is starting to experience.
(5) From Glasgow, Leeds , Bristol and Dublin , to New York , San Diego and Vancouver , to Perth , Melbourne and Sydney , groups of non-believers will be getting together to form their own monthly Sunday Assemblies, with the movement's founders – the standup comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans – visiting the fledgling congregations in what they are calling, only partly in jest, a "global missionary tour".
(6) I did not say so, thank God, even in jest, otherwise our encounter could have been even worse than it was.
(7) "That was totally in jest," he added, saying he would "tone down my sense of humour until I become president, because America needs to get a sense of humour".
(8) Green's husband Wallace, best known for the novel Infinite Jest, committed suicide at home in 2008 , and was found by Green.
(9) "F alsehood flies," wrote Jonathan Swift 300 years ago, "and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect."
(10) ‘What is truth?” said jesting Pilate – in Bacon’s famous phrase.
(11) It was a jibe made in jest by a man who had much fondness for him.
(12) In comments that a source said were largely made in jest, Johnson – who is also the Conservative candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip – attacked the former prime minister over his speech in support of Labour’s current leader Ed Miliband.
(13) Although this article is presented in jest, I am not above anything that works to get contributions for my newsletter.
(14) I saw Brand's Messiah Complex show in London the other week, in which he – in jest, of course – compares himself to Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Christ.
(15) He likes winding people up, being controversial for the sake of it and more often than not what he says is in jest.
(16) In jest or in earnest, there is a rank hypocrisy here that sits uncomfortably with me.
(17) It was planned as the much-anticipated follow-up to Infinite Jest , the teeming 1,000-page bleakly comic masterpiece that had established Wallace, at 34, as the man most likely to redefine the scope and voice of the American novel.
(18) One 18th-century classicist is even said to have planned to write a scholarly edition of the best-known joke book of that period, Joe Miller's Jests , in order to show that every single joke in it was descended from the ancient Laughter Lover .
(19) Eurozone unlocks €10.3bn bailout loan for Greece Read more I jest of course.
(20) A number of edits, apparently made in jest, have been picked up by the automatic twitter bot Congress Edits , which monitors Wikipedia for changes to the site made by accounts with IP addresses coming from inside the US legislature.
Mockery
Definition:
(n.) The act of mocking, deriding, and exposing to contempt, by mimicry, by insincere imitation, or by a false show of earnestness; a counterfeit appearance.
(n.) Insulting or contemptuous action or speech; contemptuous merriment; derision; ridicule.
(n.) Subject of laughter, derision, or sport.
Example Sentences:
(1) These faux pas by the Institutional Revolutionary party candidate, famous for his good looks and telenovela star wife, at the international literary festival in Guadalajara, left Mexico's social and mainstream media buzzing with mockery.
(2) Restricted franchise in EU referendum would make a mockery of democracy | Letters Read more My own interest in this matter goes back many years – including devoting my maiden speech in the House of Commons in 2001 to the case for lowering the voting age to 16 across the board.
(3) In announcing this sabotage, ministers make a mockery of their own supposed core objectives: local empowerment within a "big society"; massive job creation – via a green industrial revolution – to counter austerity-related job losses; desire to be the greenest government ever ; tackling global warming, and so on.
(4) The royals’ habitual secrecy makes a mockery of the accountability we expect of people who receive public money.
(5) There is strikingly little support for the Republican contender whose gaffe-prone visit to Europe in July won him few friends and who regularly turns European welfarism and "entitlement societies" into points of mockery in his campaign speeches.
(6) There was quite a bit of international mockery about our supposedly all-encompassing "sex by surprise" laws after the rape accusations against Julian Assange .
(7) Komoroske and a neighbour researched the new arrival's chequered past, the basis of which, she said, made a mockery of the decision to award him residency in New Zealand.
(8) One newspaper declared that Mohamed had "made a mockery" of the government's claim to protect the public, while another offered a reward for information leading to his capture: "£25k to Find the Burka Bunker" .
(9) The mockery continued when he noted semi-automatics had only two purposes: to kill people, and to let their owners go to a shooting range, "yell yeehaw, and get all horny at the rapid fire and the burning vapor spurting from the end of the barrel".
(10) No sooner had Conway begun to insist in interviews that “ the pivot that he’s made is on substance ”, than he proceeded to make a mockery of her claims.
(11) There was also some mockery on social media as tweeters focused on Miliband’s repeated use of anecdotes involving personal conversations he had with ordinary voters, and in particular his double reference to Gareth, a software developer, who turned out to work for a London based IT firm and is a former Lib Dem supporter considering switching to Labour.
(12) It is the ultimate representation of spectacle, a mockery of history and tradition, which serves and caters for tourists and expatriates.
(13) These cuts are a long way from the average pay increases recently experienced by FTSE 100 company chief executives or the bonuses of many senior financial service executives, and make a mockery of the claim that "we are all in this together".
(14) And this cannot logically happen, because as Willem says, there is one thing that no establishment, no dogma, religion or ideology, can bear: mockery.
(15) This, perhaps, is because he is so switched on to self-mockery.
(16) Amrit Singh, the ACLU lawyer who argued the case said: "The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obama's promise of transparency and accountability."
(17) In 12 Years a Slave, however, this reassuring cliche is overthrown, and the relationship between Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson) and Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) makes a mockery of the one between Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) and Prissy (Butterfly McQueen).
(18) Another theory, which goes back in some form to ancient Greek philosophy, argues that all laughter is an expression of superiority: it is, in other words, always an aggressive response, a form of derision or mockery (laughing at, rather than with).
(19) The steady feed of rambling selfie videos have prompted widespread mockery and scorn and in some cases have clearly further distracted from the plight of Harney County ranchers whom the militia claim to be backing.
(20) Reedie said the official was able to test the athlete but only after being told by security officials that 30 days’ notice would be required in future, which “makes a mockery of the idea of no-notice testing”.