verb, intransitive. To say or do something in jest or mockery.
Also a noun, meaning a practical joke.
"I suppose I could get busy and put that away," Liz said, nodding toward the overflowing basket of clean laundry.
"Or you could pile it on your dresser and rummage through it when you need something to wear," Steve japed.
Stung by his sarcasm, she moved to the basket, picked it up and carried it into the bedroom. Folding and storing the first few items soothed her, then she came to a pair of his briefs. Turning to his dresser, she halted. Its top was buried beneath two stacks of his clothes: one of shirts, the other of jeans and slacks. They had been there so long, she no longer perceived them as unusual. His remark hadn't been a criticism of her housekeeping at all, but a suggestion he considered entirely valid, given his own method for dealing with clean clothes.
Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.
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