Meanings
nounjablesse (plural jablesses)
plural jablesses
- artsIn Caribbean folklore, an enslaved African woman who traded her soul to the Devil in exchange for eternal beauty, and who leads men to destruction.
"Take good care when you see a beautiful woman. A jablesse always tries to look like a beautiful woman," the mother tells the daughter-speaker of "In the Night" (9).
2012, J. Brooks Bouson, Jamaica Kincaid: Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother (page 28)
Cite this entry
APA
jablesse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jablesse
MLA
“jablesse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jablesse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jablesse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jablesse.
Source: jablesse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.