jack n.17
(US) a mugger, a thief.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Hobo 51–2: Scarcely a day goes by on Madison Street but some man is relieved of a ‘stake’ by some ‘jack’. |
In compounds
(US police) an armed robber.
| TV Guide 17 June 18: Others flock here too: Jamaican Jack-boys — rip-off artists armed with MAC-10 submachine guns [HDAS]. | |
| Gone, Baby, Gone 210: ‘Why go to all this trouble when he could have hired a couple of jack boys to pop Mullen and Gutierrez’. |
the act of mugging.
| Rough Stuff 17: After this we were afraid to work the jack-racket any longer in the neighbourhood. |
In phrases
to grab a man’s shirt and pull it over his head, before robbing him.
| Vulture (1996) 139: Running a jack is the street term for grabbing a man’s shirt and pulling it over his head. |