Word Study
jackanapes
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun jackanapes has 1 sense
- jackanapes(n = noun.person) lightweight, whippersnapper - someone who is unimportant but cheeky and presumptuous; Array is a kind of cipher, cypher, nobody, nonentity
CIDE DICTIONARY
jackanapes, n. [For Jack o' (= of) apes; prop., a man who exhibits apes.].
- A monkey; an ape. Shak. [1913 Webster]
- A coxcomb; an impertinent or conceited fellow. [1913 Webster]"A young upstart jackanapes." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
jackanapes, n. archaic 1 a pert or insolent fellow.
2 a mischievous child.
3 a tame monkey.
2 a mischievous child.
3 a tame monkey.
Etymology
earliest as Jack Napes (1450): supposed to refer to the Duke of Suffolk, whose badge was an ape's clog and chain
ROGET THESAURUS
jackanapes
Blusterer
N blusterer, swaggerer, vaporer, roisterer, brawler, fanfaron, braggart, bully, terrorist, rough, bulldozer, hoodlum, hooligan, larrikin, roarer, Mohock, Mohawk, drawcansir, swashbuckler, Captain Bobadil, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Thraso, Pistol, Parolles, Bombastes Furioso, Hector, Chrononhotonthologos, jingo, desperado, dare-devil, fire eater, fury, rowdy, slang-whanger, tough, puppy, prig, Sir Oracle, dogmatist, doctrinaire, jack-in-office, saucebox, malapert, jackanapes, minx, bantam-cock.
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