jab molassi

A form of jab molassie — A traditional character in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival dressed as a devil, mostly naked and covered in molasses or grease and a colourful dye.

Meanings

nounjab molassi (plural jab molassi)
  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of jab molassie.

    A second masquerade character used in the play was the Jab Molassi, or molasses devil. At carnival he is the leaping, prancing masker, his body daubed with black or blue paint, sometimes with molasses, who threatens to besmear spectators unless they pay him off.

    1972, Errol Hill, The Trinidad Carnival: Mandate for a National Theatre, Austin, Tx.; London: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 109, column 1
    1 more example

    From these hills at carnival time the traditional mummers descended into the city – Moko Jumbies on stilts, Warrahouns speaking Amerindian tongues, Pierrot Grenade in rags, Jab Jabs with whips, Jab-Molassi painted blue – moving to the beat of African drums or tambour-bamboo.

    2004, Carlisle Chang, “Chinese in Trinidad Carnival”, in Mill Cozart Riggio, editor, Carnival: Culture in Action – The Trinidad Experience (Worlds of Performance), New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Emancipation, Ethnicity, and Identity in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival – from the Nineteenth Century to the Present), page 86
Cite this entry
APA

jab molassi. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jab%20molassi

MLA

“jab molassi.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jab%20molassi. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jab molassi,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jab%20molassi.

Source: jab molassi on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.