jesting

plural jestings

1. countableuncountablejoking

   Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings, / Her faith, her oaths, her tears and all were jestings.

   1599, “(please specify the chapter or poem)”, in The Passionate Pilgrime. […], 2nd edition, London: […] [Thomas Judson] for W[illiam] Iaggard, and are to be sold by W[illiam] Leake, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   What an extraordinary mental delusion jesting is; that sort of laboured vivacity which fancies it is pointed when it is only personal; and more extraordinary still, it is always the resource of stupid people.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 151

2. countableuncountablebantering; ridicule
3. countableuncountablemocking

comparative more jesting · superlative most jesting

1. facetious
2. humorous

   He will find that these are no jesting matters.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

3. playful; mocking
4. jeering

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of jest