jack n.2
1. a fool.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Gentleness and Nobility line 239: Nay, iwys, pyvsh and rude Jack Javell. | |
| Misogonus in (1906) II i: Marry. sir! this Jack Prat will go boast. | |
| Taming of the Shrew II i: To wish me wed to one half lunatic; A madcap ruffian and a swearing Jack. | |
| Westward Hoe IV i: There be a thousand bragging Jackes in London. | |
| ‘Iacke a Lent’ in Works (1869) I 120: If any poore Iacke-a-Lent doe happen into the hands of a foole, tis but a Foole and a Iacke, or two fooles well met. | |
| Nights Search I 52: For I do use her, as a hooke and line To catch Iack-simple. | |
| ‘The Merry Country Maid’s Answer’ in Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 341: For rather than I’le marry such a Clownish Jack, / I’le buy a witty fellow cloath[e]s to put on ’s back. | |
| Catterpillers of this Nation Anatomized 5: Its likely they are but lately rose from that doglike life of Iackyes like the fool that is proud of his own wit. | |
| Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 221: This Jack, / This paltry Mountebanking Quack. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Tarry Flynn (1965) 97: ‘Shut up, you jack, you,’ said Mary. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Dict. of Invective (1991) 14: The insulting connotations usually come through most clearly when the familiar form of a name is used, as in Chico, Charlie, Heinie, Hymie, Jack, Mick, Paddy. | |
| Indep. Rev. 3 Mar. 10: A jack named Vig [...] a dopey redneck who wouldn’t know responsibility if it palled up with him in a bar. |
2. (US Und.) a drunk individual who is made the victim of a theft.
| Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 19 Apr. 12/14: Once in a whilea pickpkcket will run across a drunken man who is easy to rob. Such a man is known as a ‘jack’. |
In compounds
(Irish) to play the fool; thus jack-acting n.
| Juno and the Paycock Act III: Come on, out with th’ money, an’ don’t be jack-actin’. | |
| Children of the Rainbow 126: Stop your jack-actin’. | |
| All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 61: A group of schoolboys comes trampling down, shouting and jack-acting. |
In phrases
to beat or scold severely.
| Hist. of Jacob and Esau V vi: If I wrought one stroke to day, lay me on the iacke. | |
| Lives of Noble Grecians 127: They should make no reckoning of all that brauery and brags, but should sticke to it like men, and lay it on the iacks of them. |
1. to act the villain. [play on jack = the ‘knave’ in cards].
| Tempest IV i: Your fairy [...] has done little better than play the jack with us. | |
| ‘A Drunken Knave’ Knave of Hearts 53: Boy y’are a villaine, didst thou fill this sacke? / ’Tis flat you Rascall, thou hast plaid the Jacke. | |
| Diary 23 Feb. n.p.: Sir R. Brookes overtook us coming to town; who played the jack with us all, and is a fellow that I must trust no more. |
2. to play the fool.
| DSUE (8th edn) 897/1: C.19. |