jack1

 
Pronunciation: /dʒak/

noun

  • 1a device for lifting heavy objects, especially one for raising the axle of a motor vehicle off the ground so that a wheel can be changed or the underside inspected.
  • 2a playing card bearing a representation of a soldier, page, or knave, normally ranking next below a queen.
  • 3 (also jack socket) a socket with two or more pairs of terminals designed to receive a jack plug.
  • 4a small white ball in bowls, at which the players aim.
  • 5 (jacks) a game played by tossing and catching small round pebbles or star-shaped pieces of metal or plastic.
  • (also jackstone) a pebble or piece of metal or plastic used in the game of jacks.
  • 6 (Jack) informal used to typify an ordinary man: he had that world-weary look of the working Jack who’d seen everything
  • chiefly US used as a form of address to a man whose name is not known.
  • North American a lumberjack.
  • a detective or police officer.
  • archaic a steeplejack.
  • the figure of a man striking the bell on a clock.
  • 7a small version of a national flag flown at the bow of a vessel in harbour to indicate its nationality.
  • 8 [mass noun] North American informal money.
  • 9a device for turning a spit.
  • 10a part of the mechanism in a spinet or harpsichord that connects a key to its corresponding string and causes the string to be plucked when the key is pressed down.
  • 11a marine fish that is typically laterally compressed with a row of large spiky scales along each side, important in many places as food or game fish. Also called pompano, scad
    [originally a West Indian term]
    • Family Carangidae (the jack family): many genera and numerous species. The jack family also includes the horse mackerel, pilotfish, kingfishes, and trevallies
  • 12the male of various animals, especially a merlin or (US) an ass.
  • 13used in names of animals that are smaller than similar kinds, e.g. jack snipe.

Phrases

before one can say Jack Robinson

informal very quickly or suddenly.

every man jack

informal each and every person (used for emphasis): they’re spies, every man jack of them

I'm all right, Jack

informal used to express selfish complacency.

jack of all trades (and master of none)

a person who can do many different types of work but who is not necessarily very competent at any of them.

on one's jack (or Jack Jones)

British rhyming slang on one’s own.

Phrasal Verbs

jack someone around

North American informal cause someone inconvenience or problems, especially by acting unfairly or indecisively.

jack in (or into)

informal log into or connect up (a computer or electronic device).

jack something in

British informal give up or stop doing something, especially a job.

jack off

vulgar slang masturbate.

jack up

informal
  • 1inject oneself with an illegal drug.
  • 2Australian give up or refuse to participate in something.

jack something up

  • 1raise something, especially a vehicle, with a jack.
  • informal increase something by a considerable amount: France jacked up its key bank interest rate
  • 2NZ informal arrange or organize something: they did a national service in jacking this racing up

Origin:

late Middle English: from Jack, pet form of the given name John. The term was used originally to denote an ordinary man (jack1 (sense 6)), also a youth (mid 16th century), hence the 'knave' in cards and 'male animal'. The word also denoted various devices saving human labour, as though one had a helper (jack1 (sense 1), jack1 (sense 3), jack1 (sense 9), jack1 (sense 10), and in compounds such as jackhammer and jackknife); the general sense 'labourer' arose in the early 18th century and survives in cheapjack, lumberjack, steeplejack, etc. Since the mid 16th century a notion of 'smallness' has arisen, hence jack1 (sense 4), jack1 (sense 5), jack1 (sense 7), jack1 (sense 13)