Forms: see JEER v. [f. next.]
1. An act of jeering; a derisive speech or utterance; a scoff, flout, gibe, taunt.
1625. B. Jonson, Staple of N., IV. i. Fitt. Madrigall, a ieere! Mad. I know.
1642. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 82. [Lord Hotham] sending ye town a jear yt wn he comes he finds ym still in their beds.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. vii. 159. An impudent and unseasonable jeer, ‘Had Zimri peace that slew his Master?’
1686. Aglionby, Painting Illustr., 145. Half afraid he had put a Jear upon him, and that he should be Laughed at.
1729. Swift, Grand quest. debated, 187. But the Dean, if this secret should come to his ears, Will never have done with his gibes and his jeers.
1821. Byron, Sardan., I. ii. 366. With his savage jeers.
1880. Spurgeon, J. Ploughm. Pict., 16. A blow is much sooner forgotten than a jeer.
† b. The action of jeering; mockery, scoffing, derision. Obs.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 388. The statue of the Sun … a Spaniard took and gam’d away in a night, whereupon one said by way of jeer, that he had plaid away the Sun before he was up.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, 4. With the utmost extremity of Jeere, Disdain, and Indignation.
1753. L. M., trans. Du Boscq’s Accompl. Woman, I. 228. Socrates was naturally given to jeer and railing.
† 2. Phr. In a jeer, (?) in a huff, in a pet. Obs.
1579–80. North, Plutarch, Cicero (1895), V. 341. This Nepos … being Tribune, left in a geere [ed. 2 iear] the exercise of his office, and went into Syria to Pompey, upon no occasion: and as fondly againe he returned thence upon a sodaine.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1633. Shirley, Triumph Peace, 266. Yet there be some … mean to show Themselves jeer majors: some tall critics have Planted artillery and wit-murderers.
1659. Fuller, App. Inj. Innoc. (1840), 363. That he may have the benefit of his own jeer-prayers to himself.
