Machinery. a plate, box, or open frame for holding work and for guiding a machine tool to the work, used especially for locating and spacing drilled holes; fixture.
2.
Angling. any of several devices or lures, especially a hook or gang of hooks weighted with metal and dressed with hair, feathers, etc., for jerking up and down in or drawing through the water to attract fish.
3.
Mining. an apparatus for washing coal or separating ore from gangue by shaking and washing.
4.
a cloth-dyeing machine in which the material, guided by rollers, is passed at full width through a dye solution in an open vat.
a rapid, lively, springy, irregular dance for one or more persons, usually in triple meter.
2.
a piece of music for or in the rhythm of such a dance.
3.
Obsolete. prank; trick.
verb (used with object)
4.
to dance (a jig or any lively dance).
5.
to sing or play in the time or rhythm of a jig: to jig a tune.
6.
to move with a jerky or bobbing motion; jerk up and down or to and fro.
verb (used without object)
7.
to dance or play a jig.
8.
to move with a quick, jerky motion; hop; bob.
Idioms
9.
in jig time, Informal. with dispatch; rapidly: We sorted the mail in jig time.
10.
the jig is up, Slang. it is hopeless; no chance remains: When the burglar heard the police siren, he knew the jig was up.
Origin: 1550–60; in earliest sense “kind of dance” perhaps < Middle French giguer to frolic, gambol, probably < an unattested WGmc verb (compare gig1); semantic development of other senses unclear
"lively dance," c.1560, perhaps related to M.Fr. giguer "to dance," or to the source of Ger. Geige "violin." Meaning "piece of sport, trick" is 1592, now mainly in phrase the jig is up (first attested 1777 as the jig is over).
tv. & in. to copulate [with] someone. (Usually objectionable.) : She's claiming they jigged twice.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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