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jig

Pronunciation: /dʒɪg/
Translate jig | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of jig

noun

  • 1a lively dance with leaping movements.
  • a piece of music for a jig, typically in compound time.
  • 2a device that holds a piece of work and guides the tool operating on it.
  • 3 Fishing a type of artificial bait that is jerked up and down through the water.

verb (jigs, jigging, jigged)

  • 1 [no object] dance a jig: he stood up and jigged in the cockpit
  • [with adverbial] move up and down with a quick jerky motion:we were jigging about in our seats
  • 2 [with object] equip (a factory or workshop) with a jig or jigs: the floor space was jigged and tooled to produce six fuselages a month
  • 3 [no object] fish with a jig:a man jigged for squid

Phrases

in jig time

North American informal extremely quickly; in a very short time: the doctor arrived in jig time, minutes after I’d telephoned

the jig is up

North American informal the scheme or deception is revealed or foiled: the jig is up; you’ve had your last chance

Origin:

mid 16th century: of unknown origin

jig in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of jig in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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