Joss
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol. countable
- 2 a Chinese god worshipped in the form of an idol wordnet
- 3 A heathen divinity. countable
"Don't forget they're mostly just joss-worshipping heathen an' they don't get no kick out of the more classy breeds o' religion. Though I guess there ain't that much diff'rence. It ain't many's so Lord Almighty in theirselves that they don't need a joss of some sort, an' I guess it's what yu think about him matters not the sort o' joss."
- 4 Luck. informal, uncountable
"She had twisted a piece of heather into her mail box for good joss, and this was the safety signal."
- 1 To invalidate a fan theory or original element of a fanwork through the introduction of new canon or retconning. slang, transitive
"Author's note part 2: I'm leaving it to the imagination of the reader what Cordelia saw of her future. Writing that out would be asking to be Jossed."
- 1 A unisex given name; A diminutive of the female given name Jocelyn.
- 2 A unisex given name; A diminutive of the male given name Joseph.
- 3 A surname.
Example
More examples"Don't forget they're mostly just joss-worshipping heathen an' they don't get no kick out of the more classy breeds o' religion. Though I guess there ain't that much diff'rence. It ain't many's so Lord Almighty in theirselves that they don't need a joss of some sort, an' I guess it's what yu think about him matters not the sort o' joss."
Etymology
From Chinese Pidgin English joss, from Macau Pidgin Portuguese, from Portuguese deus (“god”), from Latin deus (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god/that which belongs to heaven”).
Verb usage evolved from the name of Joss Whedon, creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.
Related phrases
More for "joss"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.