jack
1any of various portable devices for raising or lifting heavy objects short heights, using various mechanical, pneumatic, or hydraulic methods.
Also called knave. Cards. a playing card bearing the picture of a soldier or servant.
Electricity. a connecting device in an electrical circuit designed for the insertion of a plug.
Also called jackstone. Games.
one of a set of small metal objects having six prongs, used in the game of jacks.
one of any other set of objects, as pebbles, stones, etc., used in the game of jacks.
jacks, (used with a singular verb) a children's game in which small metal objects, stones, pebbles, or the like, are tossed, caught, and moved on the ground in a number of prescribed ways, usually while bouncing a rubber ball.
any of several carangid fishes, especially of the genus Caranx, as C. hippos(crevalle jack, or jack crevalle ), of the western Atlantic Ocean.
Slang. money: He won a lot of jack at the races.
Slang: Vulgar. jack shit.
Nautical.
a small flag flown at the jack staff of a ship, bearing a distinctive design usually symbolizing the nationality of the vessel.
Also called jack crosstree. either of a pair of crosstrees at the head of a topgallant mast, used to hold royal shrouds away from the mast.
Jack, a sailor.
a device for turning a spit.
a small wooden rod in the mechanism of a harpsichord, spinet, or virginal that rises when the key is depressed and causes the attached plectrum to strike the string.
Lawn Bowling. a small, usually white bowl or ball used as a mark for the bowlers to aim at.
Also called clock jack. Horology. a mechanical figure that strikes a clock bell.
a premigratory young male salmon.
Theater. brace jack.
Falconry. the male of a kestrel, hobby, or especially of a merlin.
to lift or move (something) with or as if with a jack (usually followed by up): to jack a car up to change a flat tire.
Informal. to increase, raise, or accelerate (prices, wages, speed, etc.) (usually followed by up).
Informal. to boost the morale of; encourage (usually followed by up).
Slang. to mess up, ruin, or injure (usually followed by up): The paint job was all jacked up.I jacked my shoulder when I fell.
to jacklight.
to jacklight.
Carpentry. having a height or length less than that of most of the others in a structure; cripple: jack rafter; jack truss.
jack off, Slang: Vulgar. to masturbate.
jack up, Slang. to give oneself an injection of a controlled substance: After 30 heroin-free days, he was let out for the afternoon and came straight to my door, begging to jack up.
Idioms about jack
every man jack, everyone without exception: They presented a formidable opposition, every man jack of them.
Origin of jack
1Words Nearby jack
Other definitions for jack (2 of 5)
to steal: Some neighborhood kids jacked her car and took it for a joyride.Hackers jacked my email account in a phishing scam.
to rob: He got jacked on his way home from the club.
Origin of jack
2Other definitions for jack (3 of 5)
Origin of jack
3Other definitions for jack (4 of 5)
a defensive coat, usually of leather, worn in medieval times by foot soldiers and others.
a container for liquor, originally of waxed leather coated with tar.
Origin of jack
4How to use jack in a sentence
Starting in the 1970s, then MPAA president jack Valenti began what was to become a decades-long fight against the quota system.
Propaganda, Protest, and Poisonous Vipers: The Cinema War in Korea | Rich Goldstein | December 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHeinold's First and Last Chance, Oakland (jack London, Taft) You can thank Johnny Heinold for your favorite jack London book.
But not even the threat of death can suppress the urge to live vicariously through jack Dawson and James Bond.
North Korea’s Secret Movie Bootleggers: How Western Films Make It Into the Hermit Kingdom | Lizzie Crocker | December 22, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAs I size up the scene, jack White now wears the crown … and he wears it well.
Nets guard Jarrett jack claimed credit for the shirts LeBron James and several other players were seen in before the game.
‘I Can’t Breathe’ Makes It Onto the Court for Will and Kate to See | Jacob Siegel | December 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Strathland would bundle me out in ten minutes if anything happened to jack.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonShe is immensely rich, one of the ablest political women in London, and jack is desperately in love with her.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonHow on earth can jack find time to think about women with the immense amount of work he gets through?
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonNo, jack is not much to look at, except when he wakes up—I have seen him quite transfigured on the platform.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonLittle jack Charmington, her husband, had a snug four hundred a year of his own, which quite sufficed for his modest needs.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James Wills
British Dictionary definitions for jack (1 of 4)
/ (dʒæk) /
a man or fellow
a sailor
the male of certain animals, esp of the ass or donkey
a mechanical or hydraulic device for exerting a large force, esp to raise a heavy weight such as a motor vehicle
any of several mechanical devices that replace manpower, such as a contrivance for rotating meat on a spit
one of four playing cards in a pack, one for each suit, bearing the picture of a young prince; knave
bowls a small usually white bowl at which the players aim with their own bowls
electrical engineering a female socket with two or more terminals designed to receive a male plug (jack plug) that either makes or breaks the circuit or circuits
a flag, esp a small flag flown at the bow of a ship indicating the ship's nationality: Compare Union Jack
nautical either of a pair of crosstrees at the head of a topgallant mast used as standoffs for the royal shrouds
a part of the action of a harpsichord, consisting of a fork-shaped device on the end of a pivoted lever on which a plectrum is mounted
any of various tropical and subtropical carangid fishes, esp those of the genus Caranx, such as C. hippos (crevalle jack)
Also called: jackstone one of the pieces used in the game of jacks
short for applejack, bootjack, jackass, jackfish, jack rabbit, lumberjack
US a slang word for money
every man jack everyone without exception
the jack Australian slang venereal disease
jack of Australian slang tired or fed up with (something)
to lift or push (an object) with a jack
electrical engineering to connect (an electronic device) with another by means of a jack and a jack plug
Also: jacklight US and Canadian to hunt (fish or game) by seeking them out or dazzling them with a flashlight
Origin of jack
1British Dictionary definitions for jack (2 of 4)
jak
/ (dʒæk) /
short for jackfruit
Origin of jack
2British Dictionary definitions for jack (3 of 4)
/ (dʒæk) /
a short sleeveless coat of armour of the Middle Ages, consisting usually of a canvas base with metal plates
archaic a drinking vessel, often of leather
Origin of jack
3British Dictionary definitions for Jack (4 of 4)
/ (dʒæk) /
I'm all right, Jack British informal
a remark indicating smug and complacent selfishness
(as modifier): an ``I'm all right, Jack'' attitude
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with jack
In addition to the idioms beginning with jack
- jack off
- jack up
also see:
- before you can say Jack Robinson
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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