jiffy
Pronunciation
  • (RP, GA) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒɪ.fi/
Noun

jiffy (plural jiffies)

  1. (colloquial) A very short, unspecified length of time. [from 1780.]
    I’ll be back in a jiffy.
    • 1780, The Town and Country Magazine, vol. 12, p. 88 ↗, February 1780.
      Most of the limbs of the law do every thing in a jiffy; but ask what they mean, and they would be as much puzzled, as if you required of them the explanantion of a common act of parliament.
  2. (computing) A unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic timer – historically, and by convention, 0.01 of a second, but some computer operating systems use other values.
  3. (electronics) The length of an alternating current power cycle (1/60 or 1/50 of a second).
  4. (physics) The time taken for light to travel a specified distance in a vacuum, usually one centimetre, but sometimes one foot or the width of a nucleon.
  5. (UK) Short for jiffy bag#English|jiffy bag, a padded envelope.
Synonyms Translations


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