/jak"leg'/ , Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.
adj.
1. unskilled or untrained for one's work; amateur: a jackleg electrician.
2. unscrupulous or without the accepted standards of one's profession: a jackleg lawyer.
3. makeshift; temporary.
n.
4. an unskilled or unscrupulous itinerant worker or practitioner.
[ 1840-50, Amer.; perh. JACK 1 + (BLACK)LEG ]