jape – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to jape
Participle: japed
Gerund: japing

Cognates

-

Indicative

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

you	jape
we	Let's jape
you	jape

Indicative

Conditional

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

to make fun of

befool, bust on, clown around, gibe, gird, gleek, jeer, jive, josh, kid, make a fool of, make fun of, make sport of, mimic, mock, needle, niggle, poke fun at, pull one's leg, razz, rib, roast, satirize, scoff, scorn, take the mickey, tease, twit

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. c.1300, "to trick, beguile," perhaps from O.Fr. japer "to howl," of echoic origin, or from O.Fr. gaber "to mock, deride." Phonetics suits the former, but sense the latter explanation. Took on a slang sense c.1450 of "have sex with," and disappeared from polite usage. Revived in harmless M.E. sense of "say or do something in jest" by Scott, etc.
2. From Middle English japen (“to deceive, play tricks on; act foolishly, joke; have sex with”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps combining Old French japer (“to bark, howl, scream; chatter, gossip”) with gaber (“to mock, deride”).
3. See also gab, Old Occitan japar, jaupar (“to bark, yelp, yap”), related to Old Saxon galpōn (“to cry loudly, make a noise, brag”) (Low German galpen (“to bark, howl, scream”)), Middle High German gelpfen (“to scream, bark, boast, proclaim”), Old Norse gjálpa (“to yelp”) (dialectal Swedish galpa (“to cry, screech”)). More at yelp, yawp, yap. See: Old Occitan 'japar', Low Saxon 'galpen', Middle High German 'gelpfen', Swedish 'galpa'.

Sample Sentences