The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural jaspers
(obsolete) Any bright-coloured kind of chalcedony apart from cornelian.
An opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and other dull colors, breaking conchoidally with a smooth surface. examples
Jasperware pottery. examples
third-person singular simple present jaspers, present participle jaspering, simple past and past participle jaspered
(transitive) To decorate with, or as if with, jasper. examples
plural jaspers
(UK, West Country, Somerset, colloquial) A wasp. examples
(US, slang) A person, a guy, especially seen as naïve or simple. quotations
And list'nin to some big out-a-town jasper / Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin' / Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!
1957, Meredith Willson, “Ya Got Trouble”, in The Music Man
"I stood there through almost an hour of it before they called Rooster Cogburn to the stand. I had guessed wrong as to which one he was, picking out a younger and slighter man with a badge on his shirt. And I was surprised when an old one-eyed jasper that was built along the lines of Grover Cleveland went up and was sworn."
1968, Charles Portis, “True Grit”, in The Saturday Evening Post
Standing on the corner like a just-got-in-town jasper
1975, “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)”, in Nighthawks at the Diner, performed by Tom Waits
“That jasper,” sniggered Darby, “never pulled out his ‘dummy’ for nothing but pissing, I bet you!”
2006, Thomas Pynchon, “The Light over the Ranges”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, page 110