jack 1
/jak/ , n.
1. any of various portable devices for raising or lifting heavy objects short heights, using various mechanical, pneumatic, or hydraulic methods.
2. Also called knave . Cards. a playing card bearing the picture of a soldier or servant.
3. Elect. a connecting device in an electrical circuit designed for the insertion of a plug.
4. ( cap. ) Informal. fellow; buddy; man (usually used in addressing a stranger): Hey, Jack, which way to Jersey?
5. Also called jackstone . Games.
a. one of a set of small metal objects having six prongs, used in the game of jacks.
b. one of any other set of objects, as pebbles, stones, etc., used in the game of jacks.
c. jacks , ( used with a sing. v. ) a children's game in which small metal objects, stones, pebbles, or the like, are tossed, caught, and moved on the ground in a number of prescribed ways, usually while bouncing a rubber ball.
6. any of several carangid fishes, esp. of the genus Caranx, as C. hippos (crevalle jack or jack crevalle) , of the western Atlantic Ocean.
7. Slang. money: He won a lot of jack at the races.
8. Naut.
a. a small flag flown at the jack staff of a ship, bearing a distinctive design usually symbolizing the nationality of the vessel.
b. Also called jack crosstree . either of a pair of crosstrees at the head of a topgallant mast, used to hold royal shrouds away from the mast.
9. ( cap. ) a sailor.
10. a lumberjack.
11. applejack.
12. See jack rabbit .
13. a jackass.
14. jacklight.
15. a device for turning a spit.
16. a small wooden rod in the mechanism of a harpsichord, spinet, or virginal that rises when the key is depressed and causes the attached plectrum to strike the string.
17. Lawn Bowling. a small, usually white bowl or ball used as a mark for the bowlers to aim at.
18. Also called clock jack . Horol. a mechanical figure that strikes a clock bell.
19. a premigratory young male salmon.
20. Theat. See brace jack .
21. Falconry. the male of a kestrel, hobby, or esp. of a merlin.
22. every man jack , everyone without exception: They presented a formidable opposition, every man jack of them.
v.t.
23. to lift or move (something) with or as if with a jack (usually fol. by up ): to jack a car up to change a flat tire.
24. Informal. to increase, raise, or accelerate (prices, wages, speed, etc.) (usually fol. by up ).
25. Informal. to boost the morale of; encourage (usually fol. by up ).
26. to jacklight.
v.i.
27. to jacklight.
28. jack off , Slang ( vulgar ). to masturbate.
adj.
29. Carpentry. having a height or length less than that of most of the others in a structure; cripple: jack rafter; jack truss.
[ 1350-1400; ME jakke, Jakke used in addressing any male, esp. a social inferior, var. of Jakken, var. of Jankin, equiv. to Jan JOHN + -kin -KIN; extended in sense to anything male, and as a designation for a variety of inanimate objects ]
jack 2
/jak/ , n.
jackfruit.
[ 1605-15;
jaca cakka ]
jack 3
/jak/ , n.
1. a defensive coat, usually of leather, worn in medieval times by foot soldiers and others.
2. a container for liquor, originally of waxed leather coated with tar.
[ 1325-75; ME jakke jaque ( s ), jacket, short, plain upper garment, prob. after jacques peasant (see JACQUERIE) ]