Jonah

1. A male given name from Hebrew.

   1 more example

   'It's Jonah,' Ted says. Simmy considers this. 'As in the whale?' 'Yep.' 'You know,' Simmy says, 'that people are going to say that to him for ever more?' 'What? The whale thing?' 'Yes.' Ted shrugs again. 'Well. He'll get used to it. All names have got some associations. Anyway, he looks like a Jonah. And I like the name Jonah—' 'Obviously,' Simmy cuts in, 'since you chose it.'

   2010, Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine, Headline, →ISBN, page 165

2. biblicalA minor prophet who was cast into the sea and swallowed by a great fish.

   So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

3. biblicalA book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
4. IslamThe 10th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

plural Jonahs

1. slangnauticalA person who brings a ship bad luck.

   Superstitious sailors regarded a clergyman as an unlucky shipmate, a Jonah whose presence would never be welcome.

   2008, Richard Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815: Blue Lights & Psalm-singers

2. broadlyslangAny person or object which is deemed to cause bad luck; a jinx.

   ‘My first agent, and he's dead. It's incredible. I feel like a complete Jonah.’

   1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 61