jess

• enPR: jĕs, IPA^(key): /dʒɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

From Middle English ges, from Middle French gies, from the plural of jet (“throw”), from Vulgar Latin *iectus, jectus < iactus (“a throwing”), or from jeter (“to throw”), itself from Latin iactare.

jess (plural jesses)

1. (falconry) A short strap fastened around the leg of a bird used in falconry, to which a leash may be fastened.
   • 1486, Juliana Berners, The booke of hauking, huntyng and fysshyng, London, 1566,

     Haukes haue about theyr legges gesses made of lether moste comonly, some of silke which should no lenger but that the knottes of them should appere in ye myddes of the left hande betwene the longe fynger and the leche fynger bicause the lewnes should be fastened to them with a payre of tyrettes, whiche tyrettes should rest vpon the lewnes and not vpon gesses, for hangyng and fastyng vpon trees when she fleyth […]

   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II,

     I am that cedar; shake me not too much;

     And you the eagles; soar ye ne’er so high,

     I have the jesses that will pull you down;

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene 3,

     […] If I do prove her haggard,

     Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,

     I’ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,

     To pray at fortune.

   • 1686, Richard Blome, The Gentlemans Recreation, Part 2, Chapter 24 “Certain Terms of Art used in Falconry, with an Explanation thereof, Alphabetically set down,” p. 62,

     Jesses are the short straps of Leather that are fastned to her Legs, and so to the Lease by the Varvils.

jess (third-person singular simple present jesses, present participle jessing, simple past and past participle jessed)

1. (falconry) To fasten a strap around the leg of a hawk.

See jet (etymology 2).

jess (plural jesses)

1. Alternative form of jet (the mineral).
2. Alternative form of jet (the color).

See just.

jess (not comparable)

1. Eye dialect spelling of just.

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

• JSEs, JSSE

jess!

1. Alternative form of jes

From English yes.

• IPA^(key): /jɛsː/
• Rhymes: -ɛsː

jess

1. (informal) yes (exclamation of satisfaction, joy, etc.)