Definitions for JACKdʒæk

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

jackdʒæk(n.)

any of various portable devices for raising or lifting heavy objects short heights, using various mechanical, pneumatic, or hydraulic methods:
an automobile jack.
Category: Machinery
Category: Games
Ref: Also called knave. 2
a connecting device in an electrical circuit designed for the insertion of a plug:
a telephone jack.
Category: Electricity and Magnetism
(cap.) Informal. fellow; buddy; man (usu. used in addressing a stranger).
Category: Informal
one of a set of small, six-pointed metal objects or pebbles used in the game of jacks. jacks, (used with a sing. v.) a children's game in which these objects are tossed and gathered, usu. while bouncing a rubber ball.
Category: Games
any of several carangid fishes, esp. of the genus Caranx.
Category: Ichthyology
Slang. money.
Category: Status (usage)
a small flag flown at the bow of a vessel, usu. symbolizing its nationality.
Category: Navy
(cap.) a sailor.
Category: Navy
Ref: lumberjack. 1
Ref: jackass (def. 1). 1
Ref: jacklight
Slang.anything at all; the least thing (usu. used in the negative):
You don't know jack.
Category: Status (usage)
a device for turning a spit.
a small, usu. white bowl or ball used as a mark for lawn bowlers to aim at.
Category: Sport
a young male salmon before its migration.
Category: Ichthyology
Falconry. the male of a kestrel, hobby, or esp. of a merlin.
Category: Sport
(v.t.)to lift or move (something) with or as if with a jack (usu. fol. by up):
to jack up a car.
to increase, raise, or accelerate (prices, wages, speed, etc.) (usu. fol. by up):
to jack up rents.
Category: Informal
to boost the morale of; encourage (usu. fol. by up).
Category: Common Vocabulary, Informal
to hunt or fish for with a jacklight.
(v.i.)to hunt or fish with a jacklight.
jack off,Vulgar Slang.to masturbate.
Category: Verb Phrase, Status (usage)
(adj.)Carpentry. having a height or length less than that of most of the others in a structure: jack rafter; jack truss.
Category: Building Trades

Origin of jack:

1350–1400; ME Jakke used in addressing any male, esp. a social inferior, var. of Jakken, var. of Jankin,=JanJohn+-kin -kin

Princeton's WordNet

jack, doodly-squat, diddly-squat, diddlysquat, diddly-shit, diddlyshit, diddly, diddley, squat, shit(noun)
a small worthless amount
"you don't know jack"
mariner, seaman, tar, Jack-tar, Jack, old salt, seafarer, gob, sea dog(noun)
a man who serves as a sailor
laborer, manual laborer, labourer, jack(noun)
someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor
jackfruit, jak, jack(noun)
immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit; it contains an edible pulp and nutritious seeds that are commonly roasted
jack(noun)
a small ball at which players aim in lawn bowling
jack(noun)
an electrical device consisting of a connector socket designed for the insertion of a plug
jack, jackstones(noun)
game equipment consisting of one of several small six-pointed metal pieces that are picked up while bouncing a ball in the game of jacks
jack(noun)
small flag indicating a ship's nationality
jack, knave(noun)
one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince
jack(noun)
tool for exerting pressure or lifting
jack(noun)
any of several fast-swimming predacious fishes of tropical to warm temperate seas
jack, jackass(verb)
male donkey
jack, jack up(verb)
lift with a special device
"jack up the car so you can change the tire"
jacklight, jack(verb)
hunt with a jacklight

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

jack(noun)ʒæk
a playing card with a picture of a prince
the jack of clubs

Wiktionary

jack(Verb)
To hit (the ball) hard; especially, to hit (the ball) out of the field, producing a home run.
Jack(Noun)
Jack Daniel's, a brand of American whiskey.

Origin: Short for Jack Tar.

Webster Dictionary

Jack(noun)
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
Jack(noun)
a familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John
Jack(noun)
an impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a clown; also, a servant; a rustic
Jack(noun)
a popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also Jack tar, and Jack afloat
Jack(noun)
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
Jack(noun)
a device to pull off boots
Jack(noun)
a sawhorse or sawbuck
Jack(noun)
a machine or contrivance for turning a spit; a smoke jack, or kitchen jack
Jack(noun)
a wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting
Jack(noun)
a lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles
Jack(noun)
a grating to separate and guide the threads; a heck box
Jack(noun)
a machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine
Jack(noun)
a compact, portable machine for planing metal
Jack(noun)
a machine for slicking or pebbling leather
Jack(noun)
a system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed
Jack(noun)
a hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught
Jack(noun)
in the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; -- called also hopper
Jack(noun)
in hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself
Jack(noun)
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
Jack(noun)
the small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls
Jack(noun)
the male of certain animals, as of the ass
Jack(noun)
a young pike; a pickerel
Jack(noun)
the jurel
Jack(noun)
a large, California rock fish (Sebastodes paucispinus); -- called also boccaccio, and merou
Jack(noun)
the wall-eyed pike
Jack(noun)
a drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding a quarter of a pint
Jack(noun)
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
Jack(noun)
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
Jack(noun)
the knave of a suit of playing cards
Jack(noun)
a coarse and cheap mediaeval coat of defense, esp. one made of leather
Jack(noun)
a pitcher or can of waxed leather; -- called also black jack
Jack(verb)
to hunt game at night by means of a jack. See 2d Jack, n., 4, n
Jack(verb)
to move or lift, as a house, by means of a jack or jacks. See 2d Jack, n., 5

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Jack
a familiar form of John, the most widely spread of Christian names, and said to be derived from the French Jacques or, as others maintain, from Jankin, a distinctive form of Johan or John; Johnkin gives us Jock and Jockey; from its extreme commonness it has acquired that slightly contemptuous signification observable in such compounds as "every man Jack," "Jack-of-all-trades," "Jack-an-apes," and the name as applied to the knaves in playing-cards, and to the small white ball used as a mark in the game of bowls is an example of its transferred sense.