jack
see also: Jack
Pronunciation Noun

jack (plural jacks)

  1. A mechanical device used to raise and (temporarily) support a heavy object, e.g. screw jack, scissor jack, hydraulic jack, ratchet jack, scaffold jack.
    She used a jack to lift her car and changed the tire.
  2. A man or men in general.
    Every man jack of them refused to lift a finger to help.
  3. A male animal.
  4. A male ass.
  5. (card games) A playing card with the letter "J" and the image of a knave or prince on it, the eleventh card in a given suit. Also called a knave.
  6. (cricket, by extension) The eleventh batsman to come to the crease in an innings.
  7. (slang) A detective.
    • 1935, Bernard O'Donnell, The trials of Mr. Justice Avory (page 219)
      When Wardell arrived on the scene, they were surprised to find that he was unshaven, and did not look too happy. One of them remarked: "The 'Jacks' (detectives) are after you."
  8. (archaic) A knave (a servant or later, a deceitful man).
  9. (sports) A target ball in bowls, etc; a jack-ball.
  10. (games) A small, six-pointed playing piece used in the game of jacks.
  11. (colloquial, euphemistic) Nothing, jack shit.
    You haven't done jack. Get up and get this room cleaned up right now!
  12. (nautical) A small flag at the bow of a ship.
  13. (nautical) A naval ensign flag flown from the main mast, mizzen mast, or the aft-most major mast of (especially) British sailing warships; Union Jack.
  14. (military) A coarse and cheap medieval coat of defense, especially one made of leather.
  15. A penny with a head on both sides, used for cheating.
  16. (slang) Money.
    • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, page 133:
      First off Regan carried fifteen grand, packed it in his clothes all the time. Real money, they tell me. Not just a top card and a bunch of hay. That's a lot of jack [...].
  17. (slang, Appalachians) A smooth often ovoid large gravel or small cobble in a natural water course.
  18. Mangifera caesia, related to the mango tree.
  19. The freshwater pike, green pike or pickerel.
  20. A large California rockfish, the bocaccio, Sebastes paucispinis.
  21. Any of the marine fish in the family Carangidae.
    Synonyms: jack mackerel
  22. (obsolete, nautical) A sailor, a jacktar.
  23. (obsolete) A pitcher or can of waxed leather, supposed to resemble a jackboot; a black-jack.
    • 1820-25, Charles Lamb, in The Essays of Elia (1830)
      He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.
  24. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A drinking measure holding half a pint or, sometimes, a quarter of a pint.
  25. A mechanical contrivance, an auxiliary machine, or a subordinate part of a machine.
    1. A device to pull off boots.
    2. A sawhorse or sawbuck.
    3. A machine for turning a spit; a smokejack.
    4. (mining) A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting.
    5. A lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles in a knitting machine.
    6. A grating to separate and guide the threads in a warping machine; a heck box.
    7. A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine.
    8. A compact, portable machine for planing metal.
    9. A machine for slicking or pebbling leather.
    10. A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed.
    11. A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught.
    12. In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; also called hopper.
    13. In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself.
    14. (nautical) A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead, to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal shrouds; also called jack crosstree.
  26. A surface-mounted connector for electrical, especially telecommunications, equipment.
    telephone jack
  27. Female ended electrical connector (see Electrical connector)
    Synonyms: socket
  28. Electrical connector in a fixed position (see Gender of connectors and fasteners)
Synonyms Antonyms
  • (female ended electrical connector) plug
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

jack (jacks, present participle jacking; past and past participle jacked)

  1. (transitive) To raise using a jack.
    He jacked the car up so that he could replace the brake pads.
  2. (transitive) To raise or increase.
    If you want to jack your stats you just write off failures as invalid results.
  3. To produce by freeze distillation; to distil (an alcoholic beverage) by freezing it and removing the ice (which is water), leaving the alcohol (which remains liquid).
    • 1941, Esquire, volume 15, issues 1-3, page 176:
      Fruit of the orchard has been "jacked" these many generations, with Plymouth Rockers putting the hard cider barrel down into the ground to freeze, and […]
    • 2010, Scott Mansfield, Strong Waters: A Simple Guide to Making Beer, Wine, Cider ... ISBN 1615191127
      The potency of a jacked beverage depends on the temperature applied to the original beverage; the colder the liquor, the more water can be frozen out […] . In New England, where this technique was historically used, people could get applejack to around 30 percent alcohol […] .
  4. (transitive, colloquial) To steal something, typically an automobile. Shortened form of carjacking.
    Someone jacked my car last night!
  5. (intransitive) To dance by moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion.
Translations
  • French: mettre sur le cric
  • Italian: sollevare con il cric
  • Portuguese: levantar
  • Spanish: levantar
Translations Adjective

jack

  1. (AU) Tired, disillusioned; fed up (with). [from 19th c.]
    • 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo 2012, p. 78:
      In the end, black and white were both crawling on the ground in reconciliation. Both saying that they were plain jack of each other.
Noun

jack (plural jacks)

  1. (slang, baseball) A home run.
Verb

jack (jacks, present participle jacking; past and past participle jacked)

  1. (transitive, slang, baseball) To hit (the ball) hard; especially, to hit (the ball) out of the field, producing a home run.
    • 1986, in Arete: The Journal of Sport Literature, Volume 4,[http://books.google.com/books?id=33AfAQAAIAAJ ] Sport Literature Association:
      An excellent piece of work, Wayne thought, so good in fact, he wasn’t surprised when Bailey walked to the plate and on the first pitch jacked the ball far into the parking lot outside the left-field fence for a tournament winning homerun.
    • 2004, Wayne Stewart, Hitting Secrets of the Pros: Big League Sluggers Reveal the Tricks of Their Trade, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 9780071418249, page 90 ↗:
      Therefore, even though Vizquel is certainly not a power hitter, at times he will try to jack the ball, perhaps pulling it with just enough oomph to carry down the line for a homer.
    • ante 2009 Jim McManus, quoted in T.J. Lewis, A View from the Mound: My Father’s Life in Baseball, Lulu.com (publisher, 2008), ISBN 9781435714861, page 107 ↗:
      Maybe he hung a curve ball to somebody and they jacked it out of the park on him and he wasn’t upset about it.
Noun

jack (plural jacks)

  1. A coarse mediaeval coat of defence, especially one made of leather.
    • Their horsemen are with jacks for most part clad.
Noun

jack (plural jacks)

  1. A jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus).

Jack
Pronunciation Proper noun
  1. A male given name, also used as a pet form of John.
    • circa 1593 William Shakespeare: Richard III: Act I, Scene III:
      Since every Jack became a gentleman
      there's many a gentle person made a Jack.
    • 1895 Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest:
      JACK. Well, really, Gwendolen, I must say that I think that there are lots of other much nicer names. I think Jack, for instance, a charming name.
      GWENDOLEN. Jack?...No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations...I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John!
  2. Surname
Translations Noun

jack (plural jacks)

  1. (informal) a placeholder or conventional name for any man, particularly a younger, lower-class man
  2. (informal, archaic) a Jack Tar, a sailor
    • 1899, Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, section 1
      When he went home on leave he rioted on a large scale—pompously. Jack ashore—with a difference—in externals only.
  3. (informal, archaic) a Jack Rum, a soldier
  4. A jacqueminot rose.
Proper noun
  1. (slang) Jack Daniel's, a brand of American whiskey.
    • 2009, "Ke$ha" (Kesha Rose Sebert), Tik Tok (song)
      Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack.



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