Word.ws English Dictionary

jess

/d͡ʒɛs/

jess noun: a short strap fastened around the leg of a bird used in falconry, to which a leash may be fastened. Also the alternative form of jet.

Noun

jess (plural jesses)

  1. A short strap fastened around the leg of a bird used in falconry, to which a leash may be fastened.
    • Haukes haue about theyr legges gesses made of lether moste comonly, some of silke which should no lenger but that the knottes of them should appere in ye myddes of the left hande betwene the longe fynger and the leche fynger bicause the lewnes should be fastened to them with a payre of tyrettes...1486, Juliana Berners, The booke of hauking, huntyng and fysshyng, London, published 1566
    • I am that cedar; shake me not too much;
      And you the eagles; soar ye ne’er so high,
      I have the jesses that will pull you down;1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC...

Verb

jess (third-person singular simple present jesses, present participle jessing, simple past and past participle jessed)

  1. To fasten a strap around the leg of a hawk.

Proper noun capitalized: Jess

Jess

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Jesse.
  2. A diminutive of the female given names Jessica and Jessamy.
    • ‘Now then Kit,’ said Mr Parkinson, ‘look sharp! Help Jess up. Where has she got to?’ ‘Here I am!’ said Jessamy breathlessly as “helped” rather to vigorously from behind by Kit, she arrived on her knees on the floor of the dog cart.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 58
    • ‘It’s almost as if we’ve gone silly with happiness,’ said Marcus two days later. ‘Everyone in the house going round grinning like a lot of Cheshire Cats! The family I mean.’ ‘And Jess,’ said Kitto quickly. ‘Oh well, Jess is as good as family,’ said Fanny comfortably. Jessamy said nothing, but she...1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 127

Also used as

jess is also the alternative form of jet.

jess is also the pronunciation spelling of just.

jess meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

jess in Hindi

जेस

jess in Tamil

ஜெஸ், ஜெஸ்ஸ், ஜெஸ்ஸிடம்

jess in Marathi

जेस

jess in Urdu

جیس, جےس
More languagesFewer languages
jess in Bengali
জেস, জেসকে, জেসের কাছে
jess in Telugu
జెస్, జెస్స్, జెస్కు
jess in Malayalam
ജെസ്സ്, ജെസ്, ജെസ്സിന്
jess in Kannada
ಜೆಸ್, ಜೆಸ್ಗೆ
jess in Punjabi
ਜੈੱਸ, ਜੈਸ, ਜੇਸ
jess in Gujarati
જેસ
jess in Odia
ଜେସ୍, ଜେସ, ଜେସ୍ଙ୍କୁ
jess in Nepali
जेस

Examples of jess in a sentence

  • If your hawk is bad-weathered, that is, will not fit on your fist when the wind blows, but hales, and beats, and hangs by the jeſſes, ſhe has an ill habit of the worſt kind.1773, James Campbell, A Treatise on modern faulconry:
  • He had jesses on his legs, and appeared to be a goss-hawk.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 207:

All 10 example sentences with jess

Forms of jess

Noun
pluraljesses
Verb
third-person singular presentjesses
present participlejessing
past participlejessed
pastjessed

Plural of jess: jesses

Origin of jess

From Middle English ges, from Middle French gies, from the plural of jet (“throw”), from Vulgar Latin *iectus, jectus < iactus (“a throwing”), or from jeter (“to throw”), itself from Latin iactare.

See jet (etymology 2).

See just.

Words that rhyme with jess

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jess

What does jess mean?
Jess means a short strap fastened around the leg of a bird used in falconry, to which a leash may be fastened.
What is jess in Hindi?
Jess in Hindi is जेस. See Jess meaning in Hindi.
How do you use jess in a sentence?
If your hawk is bad-weathered, that is, will not fit on your fist when the wind blows, but hales, and beats, and hangs by the jeſſes, ſhe has an ill habit of the worſt kind.
What part of speech is jess?
Jess can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce jess?
Jess is pronounced /d͡ʒɛs/.
What is the plural of jess?
The plural of jess is jesses.

Words near jess in the dictionary

  1. Jesmyn
  2. Jesolo
  3. Jespersen
  4. Jespersen's cycle
  5. Jespersenian
  6. jess
  7. Jessa
  8. jessakeed
  9. jessakeeds
  10. Jessalyn
  11. Jessalynn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jess (page history and authors); Jess (page history and authors); jess (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jess (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-jess.wav.

Cite this entry: “jess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.