jingo
Americannoun
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jingoes
plural
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a person who professes their patriotism loudly and excessively, favoring vigilant preparedness for war and an aggressive foreign policy; bellicose chauvinist.
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English History. a Conservative supporter of British Prime Minister Disraeli's policy in Turkey during the period 1877–78.
adjective
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of jingoes.
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characterized by jingoism.
idioms
noun
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a loud and bellicose patriot; chauvinist
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jingoism
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an exclamation of surprise
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of jingo
First recorded in 1660–70; originally conjurer's call hey jingo! “appear! come forth!” (opposed to hey presto! hasten away!), taken into general use in the phrase by Jingo, euphemism for by God; chauvinistic sense from by Jingo in political song supporting use of British forces against Russia in 1878
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:
“We don’t want to fight but by jingo if we do / We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too!”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Photograph: EO Hoppe/Getty Images For George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling was "a jingo imperialist … morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting".
From The Guardian ● Jun. 21, 2012
Your twitter name, @edballsmp, might be factually accurate but, by jingo, it's dull.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 3, 2011
We don't want to fight, but by jingo, if we do, We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money, too.*
From Time Magazine Archive
Or some dumb jingo in his hard hat and Bomb Hanoi button, or one of LBJ’s pretty daughters, or Westmoreland’s whole handsome family—nephews and nieces and baby grandson.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
In one laconic sentence the German Ambassador to Japan, Major General Eugen Ott, last week set a temporary limit to German war aims and gave Japanese jingoes an encouraging pinch in the backside.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thus I have always been against the pacifists during the quarrel, and against the jingoes at its close..
From Time Magazine Archive
He and the Sublime Emperor faced another assault by Japan's big navy jingoes.
From Time Magazine Archive
U. S. jingoes predicted that Britain would send warships to guard her people in Nicaragua the instant the U. S. withdrew, Monroe Doctrine or no Monroe Doctrine.
From Time Magazine Archive
The following is the expression of the thought of many of our humble people at home, who are neither "jingoes" nor yet impatient judges of others.
From Native Races and the War by Josephine E. (Josephine Elizabeth Grey) Butler
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.
