jesting

Founding-era definition · Webster's 1828 American Dictionary

JEST'ING, participle present tense Joking; talking for diversion or merriment. JEST'ING, noun A joking; concise wit; wit that consists in a trope or verbal figure, in a metaphorical sense of words, or in a double sense of the same word, or in similitude of sound in different words.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI

More founding-era words: liberty · virtue · republic · justice · providence · commerce · militia · arms · prudence · establishment · religion · usurpation · tyranny · citizen · unalienable · sovereign