jester

Pluraljesters

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A performer in brightly colored clothes and a fool's cap who entertained a royal or noble court in medieval and early modern times.

   The king kept a jester at his table, and the man's jokes were often sharper than the courtiers' flattery.

   In the painting, a jester in a red-and-yellow cap sits at the foot of the throne.

   Similarfool

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person who jokes, jests, or teases.

   As the newsroom's resident jester, he kept everyone's spirits up through the long election night.

   Online jesters were quick to mock the senator's clumsy post.

   Similarjoker, clown, comedian, wag, wit

   Note

   Middle English had it as gestour, and it is simply jest plus -er, so anyone who jokes or teases qualifies. The phrase resident jester borrows a little of the court entertainer: one person whose role is to skewer the absurd, as Roy Rivenburg described Nellie Bowles at The Free Press in 2025.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   Any of several nymphalid butterflies belonging to the Southeast Asian genus Symbrenthia.

   A jester settled on a leaf beside the trail, and the photographer crept closer with her macro lens.

   Lepidopterists have described several jesters from the forests of Southeast Asia.

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