Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also jack it, jack oneself off) to masturbate; thus jacking-off n., masturbation; jack-offer n., a masturbator.

1916		H.N. Cary Sl. of Venery.
1922		R. McAlmon ‘Abrupt Decision’ in A Hasty Bunch 147: That was why he was so scared this morning, wondering if all the things the book said about the dangers in jacking-off were true.
a.1940		‘Peter Pullin’ Blues’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 273: Papa caught me in the loft, I’d just finished jackin’ off. [Ibid.] 273: Son, this damned jack-offin’ bull, it has the ’sylums full, They’ll put acid on your cock, cut out your balls.
1942		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 114: He learned it near Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1900. [...] ‘So the Devil took him out, Put him in another place, / Then he went to jackin’ off / An’ he slung it in his face.’.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 96: Kissing and jacking off in face of the black mirror.
1959		‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 108: And in concert jacked off with his fist.
1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 205: Pretty soon you’ll be find yourself jackin off in the toilet.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 69: All her talk about jackingoff, I mean me supposedly jackingoff.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 77: I did it so much. I got to be a professional jack-offer. [Ibid.] 87: Buddy came into my dressing room while I was jacking off with Angel sucking my titty.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 52: So you’re going to go out there, drink your drink [...] go home, and jack off.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 140: It was safer to rent a porno flick and jack yourself off.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 9: He makes jacking off jestures in the air.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 79: Raincoat creeps who were moaning as they jacked off into newspapers and socks.
2016		Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 I have three rules and they know it [...] No fightin’. No fuckin’. No jackin’ off.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 153: ‘Sometimes he falls asleep jacking off in the sink’.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 240: ‘[H]ow long this motherfucker gonna take, he must be jacking it or something’.

2. to masturbate a partner.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 94: The King, to make a royal holiday, ordered his army to jack-off the giant.
a.1940		‘It Started in the Subway – and Ended in the Bronx’ [comic strip] Careful – or you jack me off.
1945–51		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 112: In spells of depression / He goes to confession, / And jacks off the priest in his box.
1959		‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 31: An agreeable girl named Miss Doves / Likes to jack off the young men she loves.
1967		I. Rosenthal Sheeper 38: You would love me and jack me off.
1970		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 59: She would suck you, fuck you and jack you off.
1987		in Delacoste & Alexander Sex Work (1988) 63: When I first started working here, I knew I’d have to jack off the guys.
1999		Dr Dre ‘Murder Ink’ 🎵 Blast two shots to the dome, slide back to the pad / and jack my nigga off, til his dick get soft.
2001		Doctor Dan ‘Horny Family’ 🌐 He showed her how to jack his cock and she jacked him slowly, her soft hand creating sensations he had never felt before.
2008		Simon & Zorzi ‘Unconfirmed Reports’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 2 [TV script] Pro forma. From the Latin meaning lawyers jacking each other off.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] One afternoon [she] got loaded enough to jack him off.

3. in fig. use, to blink, i.e. to move the eyelid up and down fast.

1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 168: Before Ted had time to jack off, Johnny Sharp seized him.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 113: My peepers ‘jacked off’ just watching him.

4. (US) to fool around, to do nothing.

1964		J. Gelber On Ice 288: You’ll probably jack off here for a few days, get in our way.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 25: Long-range rifle fire is jacking off. Real close is pussy.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Jack off (verb) To do nothing.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 47: Maybe if Krantz had secured the perimeter, instead of jacking off in the day room, jawing with witnesses who can’t remember their own names.

5. (drugs, also jack) to pump backwards and forwards with the plunger of the hypodermic without finally injecting the blood and heroin mix into the arm [the up-and-down gesture of masturbation and the figurative ‘jacking off’ instead of reaching a climax].

1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 10: Working the blood in the dropper slowly as she jacked the works off.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 280: He also ‘jacked it off,’ first squeezing a bit of fluid into his body, then letting the blood rush back into the eyedropper.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 111: Hardcore junkies jacked the plunger in and out to get a potent mix of dope and blood going from syringe to vein.

6. (US) to take advantage of, to deceive or tease someone.

1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 95: That gazoony just jacked us off.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 199: Jerry was just jacking him off.

7. to shake dice with a movement that might be seen as resembling masturbation.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

8. (US) to fantasize.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 253: All I done was jack myself off in my mind . . . like everythin was gonna be way past cool just cause I believe in somethin I figure was good.