jack

• In the end, black and white were both crawling on the ground in reconciliation. Both saying that they were plain jack of each other. - 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 78:

• After Dinner they frisk away to some known Place of Rendezvous, where (at Night) every Jack has his Jill and every Jill has her Jack. - 1723, The New-England Courant, volume 80:

1. (chiefly capitalized) A name applied to a hypothetical or typical man.

2. (countable, now chiefly US) A man, a fellow; a typical man; men in general.

   • Call you me daughter? now I promiſe you / You haue ſhewd a tender fatherly regard, / To wiſh me wed to one halfe Lunaticke, / A mad-cap ruffian, and a ſwearing Iacke, / That thinkes with oathes to face the matter out. -...

3. (colloquial) A sailor.

   Synonyms: jacktar tar

4. (slang) A policeman or detective; (Australia) a military policeman.

   • 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." - 1935, Bernard O'Donnell, The trials of...
   • 'I'd like you to meet DCI Henry Christie,' FB was saying. The older of the two jacks reached forward and gave Henry's right paw a quick tug. - 2013, Nick Oldham, Big City Jacks:

   Synonyms: jake 5-O alphabet barney beatsman bizzie bluebottle bluecoat blue heeler blue meanie bobby body snatcher bogey boy in blue bull bullyman buttons centenier charpering omi chazzer cobbler cop copper cozzer

5. (now rare) A manual laborer.

6. (Canada, US, colloquial) A lumberjack.

7. (India, historical, slang) A sepoy.

   • I hope to God his theories will not unman him in action, that he will not be musing and refining when he should be leading the Jacks […] - 1855, William Delafield Arnold, Oakfield: Or, Fellowship in the East, page 280:

• Our hero, among his other remarks, had obſerved, that in this place there was no ſuch utenſil as a jack, and that all the ſpits were turned by dogs, […] - 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “They distress the housekeepers of...

1. A device for turning a spit; a smokejack or roasting jack.

2. Each of a series of blocks in a harpsichord or the earlier virginal, communicating the action of the key to the quill; sometime also, a hopper in a modern piano.

   • Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap / To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, / Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap, / At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand! - 1609, Shakespeare, “Sonnet 128”,...
   • [W]hat the devil makes you so dull, Letitia? I thought to have found you popping about as brisk as the jacks of your harpsichord. - 1780, Hannah Cowley, The Belle's Stratagem, I.4:
   • In the virginal, an upright piece of wood fixed to the key-lever and fitted with a quill which plucked the string as the jack rose when the key was pressed down. Here used as "key." - 1923, Charles Talbut Onions,...

3. (glassblowing) a tool used in manual production of glass objects (like bottles or wine glasses).

4. (obsolete) A support for wood being sawn; a sawhorse or sawbuck.

5. A device used to hold a boot by the heel, to assist in removing the boot.

6. A mechanical device used to raise and (temporarily) support a heavy object, now especially to lift one side of a motor vehicle when (e.g.) changing a tyre.

   • She used a jack to lift her car and changed the tire.

7. Any of various levers for raising or lowering the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles in a knitting machine or stocking frame.

8. (mining, now rare) A wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting.

9. (obsolete) A grating device used to separate and guide the threads in a warping machine; a heck-box.

10. (obsolete) A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves a carding machine, in the preparation of yarn.

11. (electronics) A switch for a jack plug, a jackknife switch; (more generally) a socket used to connect a device to a circuit, network etc.

    • telephone jack

    Antonyms: plug

• Dead VVine that ſtinks of the Borrachio, ſup / From a fovvl Jack, or greaſie Maple Cup? - 1693, Aulus Persius Flaccus, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of...
• 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...

1. (now historical, regional) A pitcher or other vessel for holding liquid, especially alcoholic drink; a black-jack.

2. (card games, originally colloquial) The lowest court card in a deck of standard playing cards, ranking between the 10 and queen, with an image of a knave or pageboy on it.

   Synonyms: knave

   Hypernyms: court card face card playing card card

   Coordinate Terms: king queen

   Related: mul:J

3. (bowls) A small, typically white, ball used as the target ball in bowls; a jack-ball.

   • like an uninstructed bowler, so to speak, who thinks to attain the jack, by delivering his bowl straight forward upon it - 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV),...

   Synonyms: kitty

4. (nautical) A small ship's flag used as a signal or identifying device; a small flag flown at the bow of the vessel.

5. (UK, regional, now rare, historical) A measure of liquid corresponding to a quarter of a pint.

   • To a pound of sugar put a jack of water. - 1747, Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy:

6. (obsolete, slang) A fake coin designed to look like a sovereign.

7. (nautical, now rare, historical) A jackcrosstree.

8. (games) A small, six-pointed playing piece used in the game of jacks.

9. (US) A torch or other light used in hunting to attract or dazzle game at night.

   • a heron when seeing a deer attracted by the jack - 1930, Tappan Gregory, Deer at Night in the North Woods:

10. (slang, chiefly US) Money, cash.

    • 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 (or jack-shit) […]. - 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big...
    • Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack, and when you lose it, there's no attack. Where could you get money that you don't give back? Let's go on with the show - 1946, Irving Berlin, “There's No Business Like Show...

11. (Canada, US) A strong alcoholic liquor, especially home-distilled or illicit.

    • [A] quart of raisin jack was divided between us with the result that tha day proper (after the night before) was spent very quietly, watered and Bromo-Seltzered, with amusing anecdotes occasionally sprouting from...

12. (slang, euphemistic) Nothing, not anything, jack shit.

    • You haven't done jack. Get up and get this room cleaned up right now!
    • Sergeant Albrecht: Hey, c'mon, read the file! Shelly Webster, held on for 30 hours in intensive care and, her body finally just gave up. I saw it man, I couldn't do jack for her. - 1994, The Crow, spoken by Sergeant...
    • She didn't know what he was doing on the Darvish farm, or how long he'd been there, or how long he planned to stay. She didn't even know if it was his plane. In other words, jack, Mira thought, in a spike of furious...

13. (cricket, slang) The eleventh batsman to come to the crease in an innings.

14. (slang, Appalachians) A smooth often ovoid large gravel or small cobble in a natural water course.

1. A pike, especially when young.

2. (chiefly US) A male ass, especially when kept for breeding.

   Synonyms: jackass jack donkey

3. Any of the marine fish in the family Carangidae.

   Synonyms: jack mackerel

4. (US) A jackrabbit.

   • Cottontails were taken along the creeks, under the willows. Their flesh was preferable to that of the jacks[…]" - 1932, Isabel T. Kelly, “Ethnography of the Surprise Valley Paiute”, in University of California...

5. A large California rockfish, the bocaccio, Sebastes paucispinis.

6. Mangifera caesia, related to the mango tree.

7. (colloquial) Plant in the genus Arisaema, also known as Jack-in-the-pulpit, and capitalized Jack.

   • Usually a jack that makes male flowers has only one main leaf (right), while female plants have two. […] The specific taxonomy of Jack-in-the Pulpit, a member of the Arum Family (Araceae), is rather up in the air. Some...
   • In fact, most male Jacks are under 14 inches tall. Most Jacks over 14 inches tend to be Jills. - 2013 January 6, “Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Jill”, in Eat the Weeds:

8. (colloquial) Spadix of a plant (also capitalized Jack).

   • Lifting the flap at the top of the spathe reveals our slender and round-headed friend "Jack," known better to botanists as the spadix. - 2003 May 1, “Is that “Jack” in the Pulpit”, in Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont...
   • On every kid’s list of favourite plants is our quirky Jack-in-the-pulpit with its green, red or purple spadices (the Jacks) and hooded green-, red- or almost black-striped spathes (the pulpits). - 2017 May 24, Stephen...

9. (apparently does not occur standalone for the genus per se) Plant of the genus Emex, also considered synonymous to Rumex, if not then containing two species lesser jack and little jack for Emex spinosa syn. Rumex spinosus, Australian English three-corner jack and prickly jack for Emex australis syn. Rumex hypogaeus.

• jack of plate
• jack of mail
• padded jack

• A mock living burial of the principal performer, who is placed in a pit, which is covered with planks, on the top of which a sacrifice is performed, with a fire kindled with jack wood (Artocarpus integrifolia) and a...

• The year before ('76) Kingman had 37 jacks with only 502 PAs. Is that the limit? - 2001 October 8, Ray Dames, “Re: McGwire's Year”, in rec.sport.baseball (Usenet):
• Me three. I never have quite understood all the "three true outcomes" fetish around here. I mean, I know that building an offense around walks and 3-run jacks embodies the Sabermetric Virtues, and especially in today's...
• 3-run jacks are just another tool in a team's chest. The goal is to make the playoffs, then win at least one more game than your opponent each round. And repeat next year, and the year after that, and... - 2004 January...

• He jacked the car so that he could replace the brake pads.
• Large cranes were virtually non-existent in the areas I worked with this truck, so we jacked everything on and off[.] - 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 111:

Synonyms: jack up

• If you want to jack your stats you just write off failures as invalid results.

• 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 […] - 1941, Esquire, volume 15, numbers 1-3, page 176:
• 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,...

• Someone jacked my car last night!
• A kid in a M3's getting jacked right in front of me - 1993, “Just Another Day”, in Black Reign, performed by Queen Latifah:
• Now I'm in a new whip counting the big stack / Yellow-gold chain and the diamonds are black / Jack me? Nah, you don't wanna do that - 2014, Skepta, Jme, “That's Not Me” (track 10), in Konnichiwa, performed by Skepta...

• I don't even care about mine, I can get my shit off while jacking in the shower. - 2017, Diamond Johnson, Finding My Way Back to Love 2, Sullivan Group Publishing, →ISBN:

• 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...
• 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. - 2004, Wayne Stewart, Hitting Secrets...
• 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. - a. 2009, Jim McManus, quoted in T.J. Lewis, A View from the Mound: My Father’s Life in Baseball, Lulu.com...