jaywalker
Syllables: jay·walk·er/ˈd͡ʒeɪ.wɔkɚ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
cot caught merger/ˈd͡ʒeɪ.wɑkɚ/
jaywalker noun: a person who violates pedestrian traffic regulations by crossing a street away from a designated crossing or who walks on the part of the street intended for vehicles instead of the part designated for pedestrians.
Noun
jaywalker (plural jaywalkers)
- A person who violates pedestrian traffic regulations by crossing a street away from a designated crossing or who walks on the part of the street intended for vehicles instead of the part designated for pedestrians.
Forms of jaywalker
| plural | jaywalkers |
|---|
Origin of jaywalker
From jay (“a stupid person”) + walker; jay walker (“a pedestrian who doesn't pay attention to the road, endangering themselves and obstructing horses, carts, and automobiles”). First use appears c. 1917 in Harper's Magazine. Coined in analogy to the older turn-of-the-20th-century term jay driver (“a driver who doesn't pay attention to the road, endangering horses, carts, bicyclists, and pedestrians”). Promoted by driving enthusiasts and automotive concerns to clear the roads of obstructive pedestrians by making it illegal to walk in the middle of roads.
Words formed from jaywalker
Questions about jaywalker
- What does jaywalker mean?
- Jaywalker means a person who violates pedestrian traffic regulations by crossing a street away from a designated crossing or who walks on the part of the street intended for vehicles instead of the part designated for pedestrians.
- What part of speech is jaywalker?
- Jaywalker is a noun.
- How do you pronounce jaywalker?
- Jaywalker is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒeɪ.wɔkɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of jaywalker?
- The plural of jaywalker is jaywalkers.
Words near jaywalker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jaywalker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jaywalker.wav.
Cite this entry: “jaywalker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jaywalker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.