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
-
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:
And a crosswalk for the people in the apartment who jaywalk.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2022
The abiding French sense of “liberté” is on display in the streets at all hours, where Parisians young and old jaywalk at nearly every opportunity.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2021
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 used to live here, so if I don’t jaywalk, I feel weird.”
From The Verge ● Sep. 26, 2019
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
“I’ve jaywalked carefully a lot,” they continued, “and it’s never been a problem in any other city. It reminded me that L.A. is for cars, not pedestrians.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2022
Investigators later concluded that Reinhold hadn’t technically jaywalked, but they said he wasn’t free to leave because he’d crossed the street against a red signal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2022
Lisa Davis in East New York had jaywalked, but never paid the fine.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 3, 2017
When the man crossed the street, the officer then said, “Oh, you just jaywalked now, sir.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2016
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
But Czerny was full of life there, unfazed by jaywalking pedestrians and the smell of urine and stacked garbage wafting from the curb.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
