from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Jack \Jack\ (j[a^]k), n. [F. Jacques James, L. Jacobus, Gr. ?,
Heb. Ya 'aq[=o]b Jacob; prop., seizing by the heel; hence, a
supplanter. Cf. {Jacobite}, {Jockey}.]
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1. A familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John.
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You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. --Shak.
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2. An impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a
clown; also, a servant; a rustic. "Jack fool." --Chaucer.
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Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There 's many a gentle person made a Jack. --Shak.
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3. A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also
{Jack tar}, and {Jack afloat}.
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4. A mechanical contrivance, an auxiliary machine, or a
subordinate part of a machine, rendering convenient
service, and often supplying the place of a boy or
attendant who was commonly called Jack; as:
(a) A device to pull off boots.
(b) A sawhorse or sawbuck.
(c) A machine or contrivance for turning a spit; a smoke
jack, or kitchen jack.
(b) (Mining) A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by
blasting.
(e) (Knitting Machine) A lever for depressing the sinkers
which push the loops down on the needles.
(f) (Warping Machine) A grating to separate and guide the
threads; a heck box.
(g) (Spinning) A machine for twisting the sliver as it
leaves the carding machine.
(h) A compact, portable machine for planing metal.
(i) A machine for slicking or pebbling leather.
(k) A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for
multiplying speed.
(l) A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent
pipe, to prevent a back draught.
(m) In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece
communicating the action of the key to the quill; --
called also {hopper}.
(n) In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the
torch used to attract game at night; also, the light
itself. --C. Hallock.
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5. A portable machine variously constructed, for exerting
great pressure, or lifting or moving a heavy body such as
an automobile through a small distance. It consists of a
lever, screw, rack and pinion, hydraulic press, or any
simple combination of mechanical powers, working in a
compact pedestal or support and operated by a lever,
crank, capstan bar, etc. The name is often given to a
jackscrew, which is a kind of jack.
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6. The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls.
--Shak.
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Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the
jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon
it. --Sir W.
Scott.
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7. The male of certain animals, as of the ass.
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8. (Zool.)
(a) A young pike; a pickerel.
(b) The jurel.
(c) A large, California rock fish ({Sebastodes
paucispinus}); -- called also {boccaccio}, and
{m['e]rou}.
(d) The wall-eyed pike.
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9. A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding
a quarter of a pint. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.
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10. (Naut.)
(a) A flag, containing only the union, without the fly,
usually hoisted on a jack staff at the bowsprit cap;
-- called also {union jack}. The American jack is a
small blue flag, with a star for each State.
(b) A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead,
to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal
shrouds; -- called also {jack crosstree}. --R. H.
Dana, Jr.
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11. The knave of a suit of playing cards.
12. (pl.) A game played with small (metallic, with
tetrahedrally oriented spikes) objects (the jacks(1950+),
formerly jackstones) that are tossed, caught, picked up,
and arranged on a horizontal surface in various patterns;
in the modern American game, the movements are
accompanied by tossing or bouncing a rubber ball on the
horizontal surface supporting the jacks. same as
{jackstones}.
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13. Money. [slang]
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14. Apple jack.
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15. Brandy.
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Note: Jack is used adjectively in various senses. It
sometimes designates something cut short or diminished
in size; as, a jack timber; a jack rafter; a jack arch,
etc.
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{Jack arch}, an arch of the thickness of one brick.
{Jack back} (Brewing & Malt Vinegar Manuf.), a cistern which
receives the wort. See under 1st {Back}.
{Jack block} (Naut.), a block fixed in the topgallant or
royal rigging, used for raising and lowering light masts
and spars.
{Jack boots}, boots reaching above the knee; -- worn in the
17 century by soldiers; afterwards by fishermen, etc.
{Jack crosstree}. (Naut.) See 10, b, above.
{Jack curlew} (Zool.), the whimbrel.
{Jack frame}. (Cotton Spinning) See 4
(g), above.
{Jack Frost}, frost or cold weather personified as a
mischievous person.
{Jack hare}, a male hare. --Cowper.
{Jack lamp}, a lamp for still hunting and camp use. See def.
4
(n.), above.
{Jack plane}, a joiner's plane used for coarse work.
{Jack post}, one of the posts which support the crank shaft
of a deep-well-boring apparatus.
{Jack pot} (Poker Playing), the name given to the stakes,
contributions to which are made by each player
successively, till such a hand is turned as shall take the
"pot," which is the sum total of all the bets. See also
{jackpot}.
{Jack rabbit} (Zool.), any one of several species of large
American hares, having very large ears and long legs. The
California species ({Lepus Californicus}), and that of
Texas and New Mexico ({Lepus callotis}), have the tail
black above, and the ears black at the tip. They do not
become white in winter. The more northern prairie hare
({Lepus campestris}) has the upper side of the tail white,
and in winter its fur becomes nearly white.
{Jack rafter} (Arch.), in England, one of the shorter rafters
used in constructing a hip or valley roof; in the United
States, any secondary roof timber, as the common rafters
resting on purlins in a trussed roof; also, one of the
pieces simulating extended rafters, used under the eaves
in some styles of building.
{Jack salmon} (Zool.), the wall-eyed pike, or glasseye.
{Jack sauce}, an impudent fellow. [Colloq. & Obs.]
{Jack shaft} (Mach.), the first intermediate shaft, in a
factory or mill, which receives power, through belts or
gearing, from a prime mover, and transmits it, by the same
means, to other intermediate shafts or to a line shaft.
{Jack sinker} (Knitting Mach.), a thin iron plate operated by
the jack to depress the loop of thread between two
needles.
{Jack snipe}. (Zool.) See in the Vocabulary.
{Jack staff} (Naut.), a staff fixed on the bowsprit cap, upon
which the jack is hoisted.
{Jack timber} (Arch.), any timber, as a rafter, rib, or
studding, which, being intercepted, is shorter than the
others.
{Jack towel}, a towel hung on a roller for common use.
{Jack truss} (Arch.), in a hip roof, a minor truss used where
the roof has not its full section.
{Jack tree}. (Bot.) See 1st {Jack}, n.
{Jack yard} (Naut.), a short spar to extend a topsail beyond
the gaff.
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{Blue jack}, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.
{Hydraulic jack}, a jack used for lifting, pulling, or
forcing, consisting of a compact portable hydrostatic
press, with its pump and a reservoir containing a supply
of liquid, as oil.
{Jack-at-a-pinch}.
(a) One called upon to take the place of another in an
emergency.
(b) An itinerant parson who conducts an occasional
service for a fee.
{Jack-at-all-trades}, one who can turn his hand to any kind
of work.
{Jack-by-the-hedge} (Bot.), a plant of the genus {Erysimum}
({Erysimum alliaria}, or {Alliaria officinalis}), which
grows under hedges. It bears a white flower and has a
taste not unlike garlic. Called also, in England,
{sauce-alone}. --Eng. Cyc.
{Jack-in-office}, an insolent fellow in authority. --Wolcott.
{Jack-in-the-bush} (Bot.), a tropical shrub with red fruit
({Cordia Cylindrostachya}).
{Jack-in-the-green}, a chimney sweep inclosed in a framework
of boughs, carried in Mayday processions.
{Jack-of-the-buttery} (Bot.), the stonecrop ({Sedum acre}).
{Jack-of-the-clock}, a figure, usually of a man, on old
clocks, which struck the time on the bell.
{Jack-on-both-sides}, one who is or tries to be neutral.
{Jack-out-of-office}, one who has been in office and is
turned out. --Shak.
{Jack the Giant Killer}, the hero of a well-known nursery
story.
{Yellow Jack} (Naut.), the yellow fever; also, the quarantine
flag. See {Yellow flag}, under {Flag}.
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