What does "jade" mean?

Jade: A mean or tired horse; a worthless nag. Chaucer. Tired as a jade in overloaden cart. Sir P. Sidney.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A disreputable or vicious woman; a wench; a quean; also, sometimes, a worthless man. Shak. She shines the first of battered jades. Swift.
  2. 3.A young woman; -- generally so called in irony or slight contempt. A souple jade she was, and strang. Burns.
  3. 4.To treat like a jade; to spurn. [Obs.] Shak.
  4. 5.To make ridiculous and contemptible. [Obs.] I do now fool myself, to let imagination jade me. Shak.
  5. 6.To exhaust by overdriving or long-continued labor of any kind; to tire or wear out by severe or tedious tasks; to harass. The mind, once jaded by an attempt above its power, . . . checks at any vigorous undertaking ever after. Locke. -- To Jade, Fatigue, Tire, Weary. Fatigue is the generic term; tire denotes fatigue which wastes the strength; weary implies that a person is worn out by exertion; jade refers to the weariness created by a long and steady repetition of the same act or effort. A little exertion will tire a child or a weak person; a severe or protracted task wearies equally the body and the mind; the most powerful horse becomes jaded on a long journey by a continual straining of the same muscles. Wearied with labor of body or mind; tired of work, tired out by importunities; jaded by incessant attention to business.
  6. 7.To become weary; to lose spirit. They . . . fail, and jade, and tire in the prosecution. South.

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