A short strap of leather tied about the legs of a hawk to hold it on the fist. Hence a bond of affection, etc.
“If I prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
Iʹd whistle her off.”
Shakespeare: Othello, iii. 3.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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