jant, to over-tire a horse. Tusser, Husbandry, § 87. 3; jaunt, Cotgrave (s.v. Jancer). See [jaunce].
jant, smart, showy; ‘To Smeton . . . Where were dainty ducks, and jant ones’, Brathwaite, Drunken Barnaby, 119.
janty, jaunty, genteel, elegant, stylish; janty, Parson’s Wedding, i. 3 (Sad); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiv. 401 (but spelt ganty in ed. 1663); jantee, Shadwell, Timon (epilogue). Anglicized phonetic representation of F. gentil, see NED. (s.v. Jaunty).
jape, to jest, joke. Berners, Froissart, I, ccxxxiii. 324; ‘I dyd but jape with hym’, Palsgrave; a merry tale, a jest, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, ch. 29, § 2; Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 31. ME. jape, vb. (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1699; sb. C. T. A. 4201). Cp. O. Prov. gap, ‘plaisanterie, raillerie’ (Levy).
jar, to grate; hence, to quarrel, dispute; ‘We will not jar’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, ii. 2 (Barabas); jarre, Gascoigne, Works, i. 105; l. 16.
jar, a grating noise; the tick of a clock; also, a quarrel, dispute; ‘A jar of the clock’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 43; ‘fallen at jars’, 2 Hen. VI, i. 1. 253.
jarkman, an educated beggar. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1.4; ‘A Ia[r]ckeman is he that can write and reade, and somtime speake latin; he vseth to make counterfaite licences which they call Gybes, and sets to Seales, in their language called Iarkes’, Awdeley, Vagabonds, p. 5. Spelt Jackman, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (first stage direction).
jasp, a jasper. Spenser, Visions of Bellay, ii. 11. ME. jasp (Wyclif, Isaiah liv. 12), OF. jaspe. L. iaspis. Gk. ἴασπις.
jaum, to ‘jam’, press, squeeze; to be hard upon, to jeer at. Heywood, Witches of Lancs., A. i (near the end); vol. iv, p. 186. In prov. use in Yorks. and Lincoln, meaning ‘to squeeze’; see EDD. (s.v. Jam).
jaunce, to stir a horse, to make him prance, used fig. Richard II, v. 5. 94; a weary journey, Rom. and Jul. ii. 5. 53; geances, troublesome journeys, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). ‘Jaunce’ is in use in Sussex for a weary or tiring journey, see EDD. (s.v. Jance). F. jancer un cheval, ‘to stirre a horse in the stable till he sweat with-all, or as our jaunt’ (Cotgr.). See NED.