jefe
jefe noun: an officer with political influence; a head or chief in government, such as a sheriff, particularly where that person is Hispanic or of Mexican descent.
Noun
jefe (plural jefes)
- An officer with political influence; a head or chief in government, such as a sheriff, particularly where that person is Hispanic or of Mexican descent.
- Antonio Rivera Cabezas was chosen vice-jefe in March 1830.1887, Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Central America, History Company, page 153
- before he stepped forward uttering the stereotyped greeting, the Texan had put him down as the jefe or head man....
- Snatching up the rifle he lit out after the jefe, who had left two jumps ahead of the smoke.1898, Southern Pacific Company Passenger Department, Sunset, Sunset Magazines Inc. (1912), pages 313-314
- A boss in a business, company, or other organization.
- “They ain’t going to deliver the cattle across.... They’ve taken too much of a beating as it is. They’ve lost their big jefe and lots of men.”1982 January, George Durham, Taming the Nueces Strip: The Story of McNelly's Rangers, University of Texas Press, page 120
- When they were slacking off in the mine, for example, and a jefe arrived unexpectedly, they shouted loro (parrot) or fuego (fire) as warning signals.1998 June, Thomas Miller Klubock, Contested communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile's El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904-1948, Duke University Press, page 147
Examples of jefe in a sentence
- Hilario Saño, a suspect, resident here but much doubted by the jefe local, was put to the test1900, United States War Department, Annual Reports of the War Department, U.S. Government Printing Office:
- A jefe in this sense is a mentor, a person who is often a compadre of the migrant....2004 December, Jeffrey Harris Cohen, The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico, University of Texas Press:
Forms of jefe
| plural | jefes |
|---|
Origin of jefe
Borrowed from Spanish jefe (“leader, boss”), from Old French chief, from Latin caput. Doublet of chief, chef, caput, and head.
Phrases with jefe
Questions about jefe
- What does jefe mean?
- Jefe means an officer with political influence; a head or chief in government, such as a sheriff, particularly where that person is Hispanic or of Mexican descent.
- How do you use jefe in a sentence?
- Hilario Saño, a suspect, resident here but much doubted by the jefe local, was put to the test
- What part of speech is jefe?
- Jefe is a noun.
- What is the plural of jefe?
- The plural of jefe is jefes.
Words near jefe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jefe (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.
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Cite this entry: “jefe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jefe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.