jar
n. countablen. a glass container with a wide opening at the top, usually used for storing food like jam or honey. It often has a lid that you can screw on tightly.
n. a cylindrical glass or ceramic container with a wide mouth and no handle, typically used for preserving or storing food. Often used metonymically to refer to the contents of the vessel.
She opened a jar of strawberry jam for breakfast.
The kitchen shelves were lined with glass jars containing various spices, dried beans, and homemade pickles.
Archaeologists discovered several clay jars at the site, some of which still contained traces of olive oil and wine from the first century.
Inherited from Middle English jarre (“jar”), from Medieval Latin jarra, or from Middle French jarre (“liquid measure”) (from Old French jare; modern French jarre (“earthenware jar”)), or from Spanish jarra, jarro (“jug, pitcher; mug, stein”), all from Arabic جَرَّة (jarra, “earthen receptacle”). The word is cognate with Italian giara (“jar; crock”), Occitan jarro, Portuguese jarra, jarro (“jug; ewer, pitcher”). The verb is derived from the noun.
From earlier jar, jur, jarre, jurre, of uncertain origin. Possibly from earlier char, chur, charre, churre (now spelt chirr, churr (“to make a sound”); compare also nightjar and its variant nightchurr), from Middle English chirren, cherren, churren (“to sound, cry, murmur, complain”), from Old English ċeorian (“to murmur, gripe, complain with just cause”), from Proto-West Germanic karēn (“to complain”). For the change of ch to j, compare also charm, jarm (“chirping”); achar, ajar (“slightly turned or open”), chaw, jaw, etc. The noun is derived from the verb.
Commonly followed by 'of' to indicate the contents.