jade:  (verb)  to become weary or dull.  We've become jaded by the entire political process.  That's why we only watch debates in a bar.

janky:  (adj.)  of extremely poor or unreliable quality.  The home repair looked good from a distance, but up close, it was pretty obvious just how janky it was.

jejune:  (adj.)  naive; simplistic; superficial.  She was jejune to believe her lover would ever leave any of his wives.

jeopard:  (verb)  (pronounced:  gee-ah-perd)  to jeopardize.  The leopard jeoparded our outing.

jeremiad:  (noun)  (pronounced: jer-ah-my-ad)  a long, mournful lamentation; a list of woes; a sustained invective.  By the time dessert was served, we were all ready to leave, having become convinced our host’s political jeremiad was never going to end.

jerry-built:  (verb)  something that was cheaply built.  Listen, Jerry, I know your name is "Jerry," and you build homes, but I really think "Jerry-built" is not something you want on the side of your truck.

jerry-rigged:  (adj.)  a combination of "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built," meaning pretty much the same thing as "jury-rigged."  Jerry did rig that up, so I guess it is jerry-rigged, but that doesn't mean it's not well made... does it?

jetsam:  (noun)  (shortened from the word "jettison")  the part of a ship (such as cargo, deck chairs, and yesterday's casserole) that is purposely thrown overboard to lighten the load in times of distress, and is then washed ashore.  The flotsam becomes jetsam when it washes up on the shore.

jingoist:  (noun)  jingoism is an extreme form of patriotism, where one believes her or his country is always right, and often calls for violence toward foreigners and foreign countries, or generally anybody who is not xenophobic, misanthropic, misogynistic, blatantly racist, or generally not an asshole.  Owen, and all his jingoistic friends, concerned about the influx of foreigners, built their own wall around their trailer court.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), they all perished when they forgot to include a way out.

jinte:  (noun)  a portion of meat which contains a bone, as divided by a butcher.  I hope you're hungry!  We've been cooking the jinte all day.

jones:  (verb)  to long for deeply; to greatly desire.  (noun)  the desire one has.  I've been jonesing lately to hear Billy Paul's classic song "Me and Mrs. Jones."

judder:  (verb)  to shudder; to quiver; to jerk.  When Larry fell into the gunge, he couldn't help but judder.

juggernaut:  (noun)  an overwhelming force or institution.  Thinking he could still hang out regularly with the guys, Raymond was obviously not prepared for the reality of the juggernaut of married life.

junta:  (noun)  (pronounced:  hoon-tah) a military or political group that rules a country after taking over by force.  Our new government can't be a junta, because we were voted in, even though we refuse to be voted out. 

jury-rigged:  (adj.)  a quick, temporary fix with the available goods.  (In this case, "jury" is a nautical term, meaning a temporary mast put on a sailing vessel.  "Rigging" is also a nautical term, meaning the sails of a ship.  Put the two together, and you have a quick fix for a broken mast, which then became a quick fix for anything.)  Oh, yeah. I almost forgot to tell you.  Don't mess with that little wire there.  We've got all the nuclear warheads jury-rigged so they don't go off.