Definitions for: Jack


[n] male donkey
[n] any of several fast-swimming predacious fishes of tropical to warm-temperate seas
[n] tool for exerting pressure or lifting
[n] one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince
[n] small flag indicating a ship's nationality
[n] game equipment consisting of one of several small objects picked up while bouncing a ball in the game of jacks
[n] an electrical device consisting of a connector socket designed for the insertion of a plug
[n] immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit of; its seeds are commonly roasted
[n] someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor
[n] a man who serves as a sailor
[n] a small worthless amount; "you don't know jack"
[v] hunt with a jacklight
[v] lift with a jack, as of a car



Webster (1913) Definition: Jack (j[a^]k), n. [Pg. jaca, Malayalam, tsjaka.] (Bot.)
A large tree, the Artocarpus integrifolia, common in the
East Indies, closely allied to the breadfruit, from which it
differs in having its leaves entire. The fruit is of great
size, weighing from thirty to forty pounds, and through its
soft fibrous matter are scattered the seeds, which are
roasted and eaten. The wood is of a yellow color, fine grain,
and rather heavy, and is much used in cabinetwork. It is also
used for dyeing a brilliant yellow. [Written also jak.]


Jack, n. [F. Jacques James, L. Jacobus, Gr. ?, Heb. Ya
'aq[=o]b Jacob; prop., seizing by the heel; hence, a
supplanter. Cf. Jacobite, Jockey.]
1. A familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John.

You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. --Shak.

2. An impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a
clown; also, a servant; a rustic. ``Jack fool.''
--Chaucer.

Since every Jack became a gentleman, There 's many a
gentle person made a Jack. --Shak.

3. A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also
Jack tar, and Jack afloat.

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.

5. A portable machine variously constructed, for exerting
great pressure, or lifting or moving a heavy body 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.

6. The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls.
--Shak.

Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the
jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon
it. --Sir W.
Scott.

7. The male of certain animals, as of the ass.

8. (Zo["o]l.)
(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.

9. A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding
a quarter of a pint. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.

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.



11. The knave of a suit of playing cards.



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.

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 (Zo["o]l.), the whimbrel.

Jack frame. (Cotton Spinning) See 4
(g), above.

Jack Frost, frost 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.



Jack rabbit (Zo["o]l.), 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 (L. 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 ({L.
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 (Zo["o]l.), 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. (Zo["o]l.) 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.

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
(E. 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-a-box.
(a) (Bot.) A tropical tree (Hernandia sonora), which
bears a drupe that rattles when dry in the inflated
calyx.
(b) A child's toy, consisting of a box, out of which,
when the lid is raised, a figure springs.
(c) (Mech.) An epicyclic train of bevel gears for
transmitting rotary motion to two parts in such a
manner that their relative rotation may be variable;
applied to driving the wheels of tricycles, road
locomotives, and to cotton machinery, etc.; an
equation box; a jack frame; -- called also
compensating gearing.
(d) A large wooden screw turning in a nut attached to the
crosspiece of a rude press.

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-in-the-pulpit (Bot.), the American plant {Aris[ae]ma
triphyllum}, or Indian turnip, in which the upright spadix
is inclosed.

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.

Jack-with-a-lantern, Jack-o'-lantern.
(a) An ignis fatuus; a will-o'-the-wisp. ``[Newspaper
speculations] supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns
to the future historian.'' --Lowell.
(b) A lantern made of a pumpkin so prepared as to show in
illumination the features of a human face, etc.

Yellow Jack (Naut.), the yellow fever; also, the quarantine
flag. See Yellow flag, under Flag.


Jack, n. [F. jaque, jacque, perh. from the proper name
Jacques. Cf. Jacquerie.]
A coarse and cheap medi[ae]val coat of defense, esp. one made
of leather.

Their horsemen are with jacks for most part clad. --Sir
J. Harrington.


Jack, n. [Named from its resemblance to a jack boot.]
A pitcher or can of waxed leather; -- called also {black
jack}. [Obs.] --Dryden.


Jack, v. i.
To hunt game at night by means of a jack. See 2d Jack, n.,
4, n.


Jack, v. t.
To move or lift, as a house, by means of a jack or jacks. See
2d Jack, n., 5.

Synonyms: diddley, diddly, diddlyshit, diddly-shit, diddlysquat, diddly-squat, gob, jack up, jackass, jackfruit, jacklight, Jack-tar, jak, knave, laborer, labourer, manual laborer, mariner, old salt, sea dog, seafarer, seaman, shit, squat, tar

See Also: able seaman, able-bodied seaman, agricultural laborer, agricultural labourer, Alectis ciliaris, amberfish, amberjack, Artocarpus heterophyllus, ass, banded rudderfish, bargee, bargeman, blue runner, boatswain, bo's'n, bos'n, bosun, bo'sun, bring up, bumper jack, carangid, carangid fish, Carangidae, Caranx bartholomaei, Caranx crysos, Caranx hippos, cleaner, court card, crevalle jack, crewman, day laborer, day labourer, deckhand, digger, dishwasher, dock worker, docker, dockhand, dock-walloper, drudge, edible fruit, Elagatis bipinnulata, electrical device, elevate, face card, faller, family Carangidae, feller, fireman, flag, galley slave, game equipment, gandy dancer, get up, gravedigger, hand, helmsman, hewer, hired hand, hired man, hod carrier, hodman, hunt, hunt down, itinerant, jack crevalle, jackfruit tree, jackscrew, kingfish, leatherjack, leatherjacket, lift, lighterman, loader, longshoreman, lumberjack, lumberman, lumper, miner, mineworker, mule driver, mule skinner, muleteer, navvy, officer, peon, phone jack, picture card, pilot, platelayer, porter, rail-splitter, rainbow runner, raise, roustabout, rudderfish, run, runner, sailor, sawyer, screw jack, sea lawyer, section hand, Seriola dorsalis, Seriola grandis, Seriola zonata, ship's officer, skinner, small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity, splitter, sprayer, stacker, steeplejack, steerer, steersman, stevedore, stoker, telephone jack, threadfish, tool, track down, tracklayer, whaler, woodcutter, working man, working person, workman, wrecker, yardman, yellow jack, yellowtail

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