jays

Noun

jay (plural jays)

1. Any of the numerous species of birds belonging to several genera within the family Corvidae, including Garrulus, Cyanocitta, Aphelocoma, Perisoreus, Cyanocorax, Gymnorhinus, Cyanolyca, Ptilostomus, and Calocitta, allied to the crows, but smaller, more graceful in form, often handsomely coloured, usually having a crest, and often noisy.
2. Any of various other birds of similar appearance and behaviour.
   1. The Indian roller, Coracias benghalensis.
      • They are the commonality of birddom, who furnish forth the mobs which bewilder the drunken-flighted jay when he jerks, shrieking in a series of blue hyphen-flashes through the air […]1878, Philip Stewart Robinson, In My Indian Garden
3. Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium.
4. (archaic) A dull or ignorant person. It survives today in the term jaywalking.
   • Burlington Bertie's the latest young jay
     He rents a swell flat somewhere Kensington way
     He spends the good oof that his pater has made
     Along with the Brandy and Soda Brigade.1900, Harry B. Norris, “Burlington Bertie”

   Synonyms:

   ignoramus

5. (obsolete) Promiscuous woman; prostitute.
   • Some jay of Italy, / Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him:a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 3, scene 4, lines 50–51

   Synonyms:

   promiscuous woman

See all 22 meanings of jay