Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A false boasting or claim, especially one detrimental to the interests of another.
  • noun Extreme restlessness or tossing in bed, as can occur with some forms of acute disease.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A frequent tossing to and fro, especially of the body, as in great pain or high fever; restlessness.
  • noun Agitation.
  • noun Vain boasting; bragging; in canon law, false boasting; insistence on a wrongful claim, to the annoyance and injury of another.
  • noun In Louisiana, an action to recover damages for slander of title to land, or to obtain confirmation of title by a public recognition of it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Law) Vain boasting or assertions repeated to the prejudice of another's right; false claim.
  • noun (Med.) A frequent tossing or moving of the body; restlessness, as in delirium.
  • noun (Eng. Eccl. Law) a giving out or boasting by a party that he or she is married to another, whereby a common reputation of their matrimony may ensue.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun bragging or boasting, especially in a false manner to another's detriment
  • noun medicine extreme restlessness; tossing and turning in bed

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (law) a false boast that can harm others; especially a false claim to be married to someone (formerly actionable at law)
  • noun speaking of yourself in superlatives
  • noun (pathology) extremely restless tossing and twitching usually by a person with a severe illness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin iactitātiō, iactitātiōn-, false declaration, from Latin iactitātus, past participle of iactitāre, to utter, frequentative of iactāre, to boast, frequentative of iacere, to throw; see yē- in Indo-European roots.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word jactitation.

Examples

  • We think it can be said in all fairness that the right of action for jactitation of marriage has never been recognized as warranted by the common law as it was introduced in and adopted by this country.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Jactitation: 2007

  • A sort of jactitation case, leading to pcriminal prosecution, was in the news just last week arthurQuote

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Jactitation: 2007

  • But unmixed hydromel, rather than the diluted, produces frothy evacuations, such as are unseasonably and intensely bilious, and too hot; but such an evacuation occasions other great mischiefs, for it neither extinguishes the heat in the hypochondria, but rouses it, induces inquietude, and jactitation of the limbs, and ulcerates the intestines and anus.

    On Regimen In Acute Diseases 2007

  • Yes, Essentially, all you needed was mutual jactitation and you were legally married in the eyes of the Commonwealth.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Jactitation: 2007

  • “Gay marriage” is an extreme case of jactitation, one in which State officials and courts are sometimes complicit.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Jactitation: 2007

  • On the twentieth, wild delirium, On the twentieth, wild delirium, jactitation, passed no urine; small drinks were retained.

    Of The Epidemics 2007

  • Essentially, all you needed was mutual jactitation and you were legally married in the eyes of the Commonwealth.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Jactitation: 2007

  • It is urged by counsel for respondent that the allegation of nonmarriage as a ground for affirmative relief is warranted by the course of procedure at common law and is in the nature of a cross-bill setting forth the grounds of complaint in an action for jactitation of marriage.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Jactitation: 2007

  • It has not only been a question, Captain Shandy, amongst the (Vide Swinburn on Testaments, Part 7. para 8.) best lawyers and civilians in this land, continued Kysarcius, ‘Whether the mother be of kin to her child,’ — but, after much dispassionate enquiry and jactitation of the arguments on all sides — it has been adjudged for the negative — namely,

    The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman 2003

  • It has not only been a question, Captain Shandy, amongst the (Vide Swinburn on Testaments, Part 7. para 8.) best lawyers and civilians in this land, continued Kysarcius, ‘Whether the mother be of kin to her child,’ — but, after much dispassionate enquiry and jactitation of the arguments on all sides — it has been adjudged for the negative — namely,

    The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman 2003

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • a tossing to and fro or jerking and twitching of the body

    October 31, 2007

  • "'Well, sir, this is the second day of the first stadium, and we may expect a diminution of the animal heat—increasing restlessness and jactitation... And although the muscular pains and heavy sweats of yesterday diminish, the patient grows increasingly despondent.'"

    --P. O'Brian, The Commodore, 228

    March 18, 2008

  • I jactitate better than anyone I know.

    October 10, 2008

  • *nods*

    October 10, 2008

  • I'll never get an entire night's sleep, if my husband doesn't desist with these jactitations of his.

    January 25, 2012