jaywalk
Americanverb (used without object)
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jaywalks,
present (3rd person singular)
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jaywalked,
past participle, past
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jaywalking
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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jaywalksimple
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jaywalkssimple
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have jaywalkedperfect
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has jaywalkedperfect
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am jaywalkingprogressive
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are jaywalkingprogressive
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is jaywalkingprogressive
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have been jaywalkingperfect progressive
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has been jaywalkingperfect progressive
Past
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jaywalkedsimple
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had jaywalkedperfect
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was jaywalkingprogressive
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were jaywalkingprogressive
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had been jaywalkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of jaywalk
Explanation
To jaywalk is to cross the street in the middle of the block, rather than in a crosswalk, or in front of oncoming cars that have the right of way. If you dare to jaywalk, you might be violating a pedestrian traffic law. Shame on you. When you jaywalk, you don't follow the rules of the road that protect pedestrians and drivers. If you dash across the street against a red light, you jaywalk. Likewise, if you meander across a busy road rather than waiting at a crosswalk, you also jaywalk. Jaywalk comes from jay walker, coined in Kansas City in 1906, from the sense of jay as an ignorant person. Jaywalk was first used in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1909.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But he said he never believed Psaila, his partner of 20 years and a “rule follower” who refused to jaywalk in college, had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2023
You will soon be able to jaywalk in California without getting a ticket, CNN reports.
From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2022
I try never to drive in Seattle, especially downtown, because people jaywalk, and they frequently step into the street without looking.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2022
The Post: Can you give me an example of how the built environment might influence behavior, how a street design might prompt people to jaywalk or make drivers more likely to speed?
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2021
I watched him jaywalk across Fremont Boulevard and enter Fast & Easy, a little grocery store run by an elderly Vietnamese couple, Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
If somebody jaywalks, you don’t start a grand jury investigation.
From Salon ● Jan. 9, 2014
"Not everybody who jaywalks gets a ticket," said Kamal Essaheb, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.
From Washington Post
She jaywalks so endearingly that when we learn she is on the lam from a mental hospital, we are firmly on her side.
From Time Magazine Archive
After being told he’d jaywalked, Reinhold disagreed and walked into the street while continuing to resist Israel’s efforts to detain him, prosecutors said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2022
Agnes Ouyang was heading to work in Shenzhen last year when two police officers told her she had jaywalked and would need to show them her identity card.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2019
When the man crossed the street, the officer then said, “Oh, you just jaywalked now, sir.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2016
She kissed me on the lips and turned and jaywalked across the street to her beige and brown Pontiac.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 30, 2013
Kirby jaywalked across the street diagonally and passed in front of an electric headed south.
From Tangled Trails A Western Detective Story by William MacLeod Raine
"I think here they might be a bit more strict. I got shouted at for jaywalking here."
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
Among the revisions: new bans on jaywalking, walking pets without a leash and smoking while driving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
“The movie you’re about to see was paid for almost entirely by the Canadian government,” said Johnson with contagious glee, adding that German audiences have also been shocked to witness the city’s rampant jaywalking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2025
It was because new traffic signs had been installed in town and jaywalking laws were being enforced.
From Slate ● May 2, 2024
A couple stepping out of a café; a businessman on his phone; a woman beginning to cross the street against the light, then coming back, perhaps fearing that jaywalking would get her gleaned.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
