From Middle French jacquet, diminutive of Old French jaque.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/
• (America)
  • (America) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/
  • (weak vowel) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒæk.ət/

jacket (plural jackets)

1. A piece of clothing worn on the upper body outside a shirt or blouse, often waist length to thigh length.
2. A piece of a person's suit, beside trousers and, sometimes, waistcoat; coat (US)
3. A protective or insulating cover for an object (e.g. a book, hot water tank, bullet.)
4. (slang) A police record.
   • 2014, Inherent Vice, 01:54:00:

     "I need to look up somebody's jacket."

5. (military) In ordnance, a strengthening band surrounding and reinforcing the tube in which the charge is fired.
6. The tough outer skin of a baked potato.

   Cook the potatoes in their jackets.

7. (Jamaica) A bastard child, in particular one whose father is unaware that he is not the child’s biological father.
8. (Appalachian) A vest(US); a waistcoat (UK)

• (piece of a person's suit) coat (US)
• (removable protective cover) sleeve

• French: veste, blouson
• German: Jacke
• Italian: giacca
• Portuguese: jaqueta
• Russian: ку́ртка
• Spanish: chaqueta, (casual jacket) chaqueta, (Argentina) campera, (Chile) casaca, (Spain) cazadora, (Bolivia) chamarra, (Ecuador) chompa, (El Salvador) chumpa, jacket (Costa Rica), jacket (Cuba), paltó (Venezuela)

• French: veste
• German: Jackett, Sakko
• Italian: giacchetta
• Portuguese: paletó
• Russian: пиджа́к
• Spanish: chaqueta, (Latin America) saco, (Spain) americana, (Puerto Rico) gabán, (Venezuela) paltó

• French: couverture, jaquette
• Portuguese: revestimento
• Russian: суперобло́жка

jacket (jackets, present participle jacketing; simple past and past participle jacketed)

1. To confine (someone) to a straitjacket. [from 18th c.]
   • 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, volume VII, Fragment:

     ‘None of your gab, I tell you! If you speak another word, I'll have you jacketed […] !’

2. (transitive) To enclose or encase in a jacket or other covering. [from 19th c.]