Word
johns
Phoneticsjohns
US/ˈdʒɑnz/
UK/dʒˈɒnz/
Definitions
01customers of a prostitute
n. men who pay for sex.
n. a slang term for the clients of sex workers, typically used in a law enforcement or sociological context.
“The police were watching the street to catch any johns looking for trouble.”
“The undercover operation was specifically designed to target the johns rather than the vulnerable individuals working on the street.”
Slang · American English
Usage
Usually used in the plural when referring to a group of customers.
Teaching tip
This is a very specific slang term often found in crime news or police dramas; it is not used in polite or formal conversation.
02plural of the name John
n. more than one person named John.
n. the plural form of the common masculine given name John.
“There are three Johns in my office, so we use their last names to tell them apart.”
“The guest list was confusing because it contained four different Johns, all of whom were from the same department.”
Usage
Capitalized as a proper noun.
Etymology
Variant of John with genitival or excrescent -s or a variant of Jones.
From John + -s (plural suffix).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/johns