Meaning
A child that a woman passes off as belonging to a man who is not the biological father. To 'give someone a jacket' is to let him believe he fathered a child that is really another man's, so that he raises it as his own in ignorance of the truth. A pointed and much-discussed feature of Jamaican romantic life, the 'jacket' is the subject of many a dancehall song, warning, and rueful joke, and to discover that a child is a jacket is a deep and public humiliation.
Examples
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DNA test reveal seh di pickney a jacket.
The DNA test revealed the child wasn't his.
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She gi him a jacket fi years.
She passed off another man's child as his for years.
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Nuff man a mind jacket an nuh know.
Many men are raising children that aren't theirs without knowing.
Origin
A Jamaican slang use of 'jacket' — something put on a man from outside, that does not truly belong to him.
How it’s used
A well-known and painful theme in Jamaican life and dancehall, tied to questions of paternity and trust.