jakes

See also: Jakes and Jakeš

English

Alternative forms

• jacks
• jacques, jakes's, jakeses (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English Jake (variant of “Jack”) or Jakke (variant of “Jacques” and “Jack”). Use as a place to urinate and defecate first attested in the form jacques. Compare terms such as US slang Cousin John and Quincy, used as euphemistic personifications the speaker was "visiting".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒeɪks/
• Rhymes: -eɪks

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

jakes (usually uncountable, plural jakeses)

1. plural of jake in its various senses.

2. 

   A jakes.

   (now chiefly Ireland) A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     My lord, if you’ll give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and daub the walls of a jakes with him.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 1, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book 6, page 269:

     […] Whereas the Truth-finder, having raked out that Jakes his own Mind, and being there capable of tracing no Ray of Divinity, nor any thing virtuous, or good, or lovely, or loving, very fairly, honestly, and logically concludes, that no such things exist in the whole Creation.

   • 1994, Derek Beaven, Newton’s Niece, Fourth Estate, published 1999, page 8:

     And the treasures of the floor and walls went raw into the jakeses from my brush and dustpan: sludges, geodes, hair, dead insects and arachnidae, a rubber glove and tainted paper waste, a mouse's skull and tail, a set of used plasters, […]

Synonyms

• (place to urinate and defecate): outhouse

  See Thesaurus:bathroom

Derived terms

• jakeshouse

Verb

jakes

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of jake: to play a form of prank