See Also:

jay (iou)



jay noun & adjective. L15.
[Old French (mod. geai) from late Latin gaius, gaia, perh. from male praenomen Gaius.]
A. noun.
Any of various medium-sized birds of the crow family, with varied, often colourful, plumage; spec. the Eurasian Garrulus glandarius, a raucous, woodland bird with pinkish-brown plumage marked with black, white, and blue. L15.
blue jay: see BLUE adjective. CANADA jay. Siberian jay: see SIBERIAN adjective. Steller jay, Steller's jay: see STELLER.
Any of various other birds; esp. a jackdaw; a chough. obsolete exc. dial. L15.
An impertinent chatterer. Also, a flashy or absurdly dressed person; a stupid or silly person. colloq. E16.
Comb.: jay-bird colloq. = sense A.1 above (naked as a jay-bird: see NAKED adjective); jay-hawker (chiefly US), a raiding guerrilla or irregular soldier (orig. in and around eastern Kansas).
b. attrib. or as adjective. Dull, unsophisticated, inferior, poor. US colloq. L19.