jest

The surly, brilliant, hip, fashionable Davis aspired to many things, but sainthood, even in jest, was not one of them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

"And he makes comments like that in jest, but there's a reality behind that."

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

People will tell you who they are regardless, even and especially in jest.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026

He even managed to get a more current jest in, teasing the group of young cadets with a “six-seven” joke about making good choices.

From Salon ● May 24, 2026

“Cain’t we jest sleep in here, Miss Love? Please?”

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

"He's posing," the spider-keeper jests as it rears up on its back legs.

From BBC ● May 16, 2025

“Eliahna was a master of jests and loved making people laugh.”

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 2, 2022

Trying to explain the difference between Unitarians and Universalists, who did not merge until 1961, Dana jests: “Suffice it to say that Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian and P.T. Barnum a Universalist.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2022

Jesse Jan Driessen jests that a big part of coping with distance in a relationship has been accepting that being in lockdown means a lot of mundane conversation.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 14, 2021

Khal Drogo shouted commands and jests down to his bloodriders, and laughed at their replies, but he scarcely glanced at Dany beside him.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

“I got friends that don’t play anymore,” Mack jested.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026

Captain Andy Robertson jested his team-mate was just seeking attention, not that he'd be short of it.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

“That’s like saying: ‘I’ll have the soup and if you don’t have that I will take sneakers,’” the host jested.

From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2024

Speaker Rep. Joanna McClinton, a Democrat from Philadelphia County, jested, “Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” - echoing the lyrics of Swift’s track “Shake It Off.”

From Washington Times ● Dec. 14, 2023

At the time, some of my comrades jested that I was a miner at heart, for I spent my days at the quarry and my free time digging in the courtyard.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Hamish says there is no excuse for anything beyond light-hearted jesting.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

“Some of you may know me as Kelly Bundy from ‘Married With Children,’” she continued, jesting that the audience didn’t need to applaud every time she does something.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2024

If all this jesting and jousting about historically documented misogyny, maternal misery and decapitation isn’t your goblet of grog after a while, “Six” smartly pivots in the final wife’s number, “I Don’t Need Your Love.”

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2023

When the Komische Oper Berlin schedules a season of music dramas, it often delights in making sure that repertory war horses alternate with modernist works and jesting rarities.

From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2021

It was the only logical explanation; she must have misunderstood the true meaning of the conversation, for she was not used to grown men jesting with one another in such a free and sportive way.

From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood