Jakes
//d͡ʒeɪks// name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory. Ireland, uncountable, usually
"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."
- 2 plural of jake form-of, plural
- 3 a small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate wordnet
Verb
- 1 third-person singular simple present indicative of jake form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
Etymology 1
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".
Etymology 2
From Jake + -s (patronymic suffix).
More for "jakes"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.