jest

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A playful or frivolous mood or manner.
• noun A playful remark; a witticism or joke.
• noun A playful or amusing act; a prank.
• noun An object of ridicule; a laughingstock.
• intransitive verb To make witty or amusing remarks.
• intransitive verb To act in a playful or facetious manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An act; deed; achievement; exploit; gest. See gest, n.
• noun A tale of achievement or adventure; a story; romance. See gest, n., 2.
• noun A mask; masquerade; pageant.
• noun A spoken pleasantry; a laughable or intentionally ludicrous saying; a witticism; a joke; a sally.
• noun An acted pleasantry; a, jocular or playful action; something done to make sport or cause laughter.
• noun The object of laughter, sport, or mockery; a laughing-stock.
• noun Synonyms Jest, Joke; quip, quirk, witticism, sally. A joke is often rougher or less delicate than a jest, as a practical joke, but jest often suggests more of lightness or scoffing than joke, as to turn everything into jest. Joke is the word to be used where action is implied; jest is generally applied to something said.
• A common dialectal form of just.
• To tell stories or romances. See gest, verb
• I can not geste, rum, raf, ruf, by letter
• To trifle (with); amuse or entertain by words or actions; treat as trifling.
• To say or do something intended to amuse or cause laughter.
• To take part in a mask or sport; engage in mock combat; just.
• To utter in jest or sport.
• To apply a jest to; joke with; banter; rally.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb obsolete To take part in a merrymaking; -- especially, to act in a mask or interlude.
• intransitive verb To make merriment by words or actions; to joke; to make light of anything.
• noun obsolete A deed; an action; a gest.
• noun obsolete A mask; a pageant; an interlude.
• noun Something done or said in order to amuse; a joke; a witticism; a jocose or sportive remark or phrase. See Synonyms under Jest, v. i.
• noun The object of laughter or sport; a laughingstock.
• noun for mere sport or diversion; not in truth and reality; not in earnest.
• noun a book containing a collection of jests, jokes, and amusing anecdotes; a Joe Miller.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun archaic An act performed for amusement; a joke.
• noun obsolete Someone or something that is ridiculed; the target of a joke.
• verb To tell a joke; to talk in a playful manner; to make fun of something or someone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter
• verb act in a funny or teasing way
• verb tell a joke; speak humorously
• noun activity characterized by good humor