jass

1. uncountablecard gamesA trick-taking card game popular in Switzerland and neighboring areas of Germany and Austria.

   A Swiss jass master and I teamed up against my wife and an American, who were both rank beginners.

   1986, Kenneth Hsu, The Great Dying

   2 more examples

   Jass is similar to bridge, though with completely different cards, and is a national obsession, for young and old alike.

   2010, Diccon Bewes, Swiss Watching, page 244

   When Nonna plays cards, she moves her teeth from side to side. It makes a bit of a racket. It distracts the other jass players – that's why Nonna's so good at jass.

   2014, Arno Camenisch, translated by Donal McLaughlin, Behind the Station

1. obsoleteuncountableObsolete form of jazz (“style of music”).

   “Yet I've noticed the same thing when your band plays—the most amazing social coherence, as if you all shared the same brain.” “Sure,” agreed “Dope,” “but you can't call that organization.” “What do you call it?” “Jass.”

   2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 417

plural Jasses

1. A surname from German.