joke / jōk/ • n. a thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, esp. a story with a funny punchline: she was in a mood to tell jokes. ∎  a trick played on someone for fun. ∎  [in sing.] inf. a person or thing that is ridiculously inadequate: the transportation system is a joke.• v. [intr.] make jokes; talk humorously or flippantly: she could laugh and joke with her colleagues | [with direct speech] “It's OK, we're not related,” she joked. ∎  [tr.] archaic poke fun at: he was pretending to joke his daughter.PHRASES: be no joke inf. be a serious matter or difficult undertaking: trying to shop with three children in tow is no joke. can (or can't) take a joke be able (or unable) to receive humorous remarks or tricks in the spirit in which they are intended: if you can't take a joke, you should never have joined.the joke is on someone inf. someone looks foolish, esp. after trying to make someone else look so.make a joke of laugh or be humorous about (something that is not funny in itself).DERIVATIVES: jok·ey (also jok·y) adj.jok·i·ly / -kəlē/ adv.jok·i·ness n.jok·ing·ly adv.

JOKE. Something said or done to cause amusement. Making or ‘cracking’ a joke requires certain well-established devices, such as, in English, a ritual announcement often containing the word one: ‘Have you heard this one?’; ‘I heard a good one yesterday’; ‘Do you know the one about the actress and the bishop at Stonehenge?’ Any such statement or question is a formulaic summons to laughter. Technically, jokes are like chess: there is a limited number of moves, but the variations and combinations are infinite. Old jokes may enjoy an extended span of life through variations on the original formula: ‘Who was that lady I saw you with last night?’—‘That was no lady; that was my wife.’ This tired old two-liner picks up a little energy if recast: ‘Who was that lady I saw you with last night?’—‘If it was last night, that was no lady.’ Jokes can be refurbished to suit the latest fashion, appearing and reappearing indifferent generic settings, as doctor jokes, elephant jokes, red-white-and-blue jokes, sick jokes, waiter jokes, and even anti-jokes, in which the joke is the absence of a joke. See HUMO(U)R, POLITICALLY CORRECT, SCATOLOGY.

joke sb. XVII (joque). orig. sl.; poss.— L. jocus word-play, jest.
So joke vb. XVII. Hence joker jester, merry fellow XVIII; something used in playing a trick; odd card in a pack (orig. U.S.) XIX.