[f. JOKE sb., or ad. L. jocārī to jest, to joke: cf. It. giocare, also JOKE sb.]
1. intr. To make jokes, to jest.
[Joking is attributed to Milton in Warton’s ed. of M.’s Poems 1785, p. 375; thence in Todd, and Globe ed. p. 575. But the actual reading (Apol. Smect., i. (1642) 26) is jesting, which remains in all edd. of the Prose Wks.]
1670. [see JOKING vbl. sb.].
1723. Steele, Consc. Lovers, IV. i. Your Honour is pleas’d to joke with me.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 337. They quote Elijah for a precedent, who joked upon the four hundred priests of Baal.
1823. F. Clissold, Ascent Mt. Blanc, 10. The guides, who had so reluctantly agreed to ascend, now merrily joked upon our novel situation.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 286. The benchers joke with the women passing by, and are joked with back again.
2. trans. To make the object of a joke or jokes; to poke fun at; to chaff, banter, rally.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., lvii. Miss Snapper … pretended to joke me upon my passion for Narcissa.
1768. Boswell, Corsica (ed. 2), 282. I often joked them with the text which is applied to their order.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 28. Sir Joseph Banks joked her about Otoroo.
1838. P’cess Elizabeth, in Lett. (1898), 344. She loves to joke others.
a. 1847. Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, III. xix. 100. It is my wish never to be joked upon subjects of this kind.
3. trans. To get or put (out or away) by joking.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., x. 268. A fellow who will joke and laugh the money out of your pocket.
1891. W. D. Howells, in Harper’s Mag., July, 194/1. The question was joked away between them.
