From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishjapejape /dʒeɪp/ noun [countable] British English old-fashioned TRICK/DECEIVEa trick or joke
Examples from the Corpus
jape• What a jape it would be, declared Raphaelo, to gain access to the heat sink.• What larks and japes persuaded this audience to collapse in convulsions is a mystery as dark as the Druids' Runes.• The not unfamiliar childish jape of depositing a stink bomb in her locker caused her great anguish.• The brand might be no mark of honour at all - but a culminating cruel humiliating jape.• But although many pirates see it all as a jolly jape, people in the software business are getting worried.• But even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point; and Blast had none.• No explanation for the fall was ever given, though Sir Thomas believed he may have been involved in some stupid jape.Origin jape (1300-1400) jape “to joke, make fun of someone” ((14-20 centuries)), from Old French japer “to cry out like a dog” 