subs. (old colloquial).—An absurd fop; a whippersnapper: a general term of reproach. JACKANAPES-COAT = a dandy-coat (PEPYS). [Originally, no doubt, a gaudy-suited and performing ape (the word is still good Scots for a monkey; cf. SCOTT, Redgauntlet); and, hence, by implication anybody at once ugly (or diminutive), showy, and impudent. Also a JACK-OF-APES was a man who exhibited performing apes].

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  d. 1529.  SKELTON, Poems, p. 160.

        He grins and he gapes,
As it were JACK NAPIS!

2

  1543.  BALE, Yet a Course at the Romyshe Foxe, fol. 92. He played JACK A NAPES, swearynge by hys tene bones.

3

  1567.  EDWARDS, Damon and Pithias [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, iv. 60]. Away, JACKANAPES, else I will col’phise you by and by.

4

  c. 1590–1600.  MONTGOMERIE, Against the God of Love [ed.  IRVING, 1821] p. 97.

        Blind brutal Boy, that with thy bou abuses
  Leill leisome Love by Lechery and Lust,
  Judge, JAKANAPIS and Jougler maist unjust.

5

  1596.  NASHE, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, in Works [GROSART, iii. 156]. Common marks for every JACKANAPES preacher to kick, spit, or throw dirt at.

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  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well that Ends Well, iii. 5. That JACKANAPES with scarfs.

7

  1604.  MARSTON and WEBSTER, The Malcontent, i. 3. Sir Tristam Tristam come aloft, JACKE-A-NAPES, with a whim-wham.

8

  1607.  T. TOMKIS, Lingua, or the Five Senses [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix. 390]. This Invention is the proudest JACKANAPES … that ever breathed.

9

  1612–13.  R. TAILOR, The Hog hath Lost His Pearl, ii. Malapert, my father’s butler, being a witty JACKANAPES, told me why it was.

10

  1639.  GLAPTHORNE, Argalus and Parthenia, in Wks. (1874), i. 38. Ladies shall beat thee to death … thou JACKANAPES.

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  1653.  R. BROME, The Court Beggar, ii., 1, in Five New Playes, 200. Thou art a JACKANAPES of the basest tricks that ever I saw for a halfe-penny.

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  1675.  COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft, in Wks. (1725), p. 180.

        Transform’d my self (my pretty knave)
Into these man and eagle’s shapes,
To snap my little JACK-A-NAPES.

13

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. JACKANAPES, a Term of Reproach, a little sorry Whipper-snapper.

14

  1712.  ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 311, 26 Feb. I have myself caught a young jackanapes, with a pair of silver-fringed gloves, in the very fact.

15

  1752.  FOOTE, Taste (5th ed.), 33. Saucy JACKANAPES.

16

  1775.  SHERIDAN, The Rivals, ii. 1. Nome of your sneering, puppy! no grinning, JACKANAPES!

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. JACKANAPES. … a pert ugly little fellow.

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