jack n.1
1. a man or boy; a commoner as distinct from a gentleman.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Frere’s Tale line 1356: Whether that sir Robert or sir Huwe, Or Iakke or Rauf, or who-so that it were. | |
| Agaynste A Comsely Coystrowne i line 14: Lo, Jak wold be a jentyl man! [...] An ussher of the hall fayn wold I get To poynyte this proude page a place and a rome, For Jak wold be a jentylman, that late was a grome. | |
| Magnyfycence line 286: What avayleth lordshype, yourselfe for to kyll With care and thought howe Jacke shall have Gyl? | |
| Colyn Cloute (1550) Aiii: They lumber forth the law To herken Jacke and Gyl / Whan they put vp a bil. | |
| Proverbs I Ch. xi: I have been common Jacke to all that hole flocke. | |
| (trans.) ‘The fyrst Satyre’ Horace his Satyres Bk I Avi: Thy jacke, thy gille, thy kith, thy kinne doth prosecute thy fall. | |
| Promos and Cassandra II IV ii: To his knauery himselfe, a bawdy jack doth proue. | |
| Anatomie of Absurditie in Works I (1883–4) 9: They distinguish a Gentleman from a broking Iacke, and Courtier from a club-headed companion. | |
| Edward II line 705: I haue not seene a dapper iack so briske; He wears a short Italian hooded cloake. | |
| Romeo and Juliet II iii: I’ll take him down, an ’a were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks, and if I cannot, I’ll find those that shall. | |
| Summer’s Last Will and Testament in Works VI (1883–4) 107: This sawcie vpstart Iacke. | |
| Ram-Alley IV i: Where be these raskcals that skip vp and downe, Faster then Veirginall iacks? | |
| Anatomy of Melancholy (1850) 332: A company of scoffers and proud jacks are commonly conversant and attendant in such places. | |
| Covent-Garden Weeded II i: Go to, you are a peevish Jack. | |
 | Five New Plays 403: The frumping Jacks are gone [F&H]. | |
| Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 126: Shall I invite to be my spouse [...] Some saucy, proud Numidian Jack, / And humbly beg of him to take / Aeneas’ leavings. | |
| Proverbs 108: Jack would be a gentleman, if he could speak French. | |
| ‘Wades Reformation’ in Bagford Ballads (1878) I 8: Begon! quoth she, you saucy jack. | |
| London Spy XII 286: Every saucy Jack will tumble our Reputation into the Dripping-Pan. | |
| Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 72: I am scandalis’d [...] at your custom in London, in making every sawcy jack a gentleman. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 28: Ye Jacks of the Town, / And Whiggs of renown. | |
| Artifice Act III: I wou’d not care if I were call’d plain Jack. | |
| Commissary in Works (1799) II 42: A gentleman by birth and by breeding, none of your little whipper snapper Jacks. | |
| ‘Leap Year’ Collection of Songs II 142: Every Jack will soon find out a Jill. | |
| Wonder 6: The old saying, there’s never so bad a jack but there’s as bad a jill. | |
| Larks of Logic, Tom and Jerry III i: A charley’s the jack set to watch ’em. | |
| Swells Night Out n.p.: It is not an unusual thing to witness Jack with a doxy on each knee. | |
| Three Brass Balls 130: The speaker was one of the flash young gentlemen who haunt suburban billiard-rooms [...] and call the marker ‘Jack’. | |
| ‘Good For Trade’ Sporting Times 25 Mar. 1/4: Hence the more love-making Jacks there are, and eke love-making Jills, / Then the better is that worthy tradesman pleased. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sport (Adelaide) 15 June 6/1: One of the Jacks [...] asked Johnny what was going to win the Caulfield Cup . | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 108: Jack. – A generic term for any tramp or other man. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Gun in My Hand 52: This land where jack is better than his master. | |
| Cool Hand Luke (1967) 179: Luke had been made a Water Jack? Cool Hand Luke? | |
| Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 182: Professor Calloway [...] was the hardest jack with the greatest jive. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 279: Other generics include: [...] Jack, any man. | |
| et al. A2Z 55/2: Jack – 1. n. any person. | |
| ‘The Streak’ in 145th Street 55: My main man, my ace, the Jack who’s got my back, is Froggy Williams. |
2. an acquaintance.
| Vinegar and Mustard A2v: How you whispered with your Jacks and Pot-companions, and then you shook hands at parting. |
3. a general term of abuse.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Jack a Term of Reproach, a little sorry Whipper-snapper [...] Every Jack will have a Gill, or the Coursest He, will have as Coarse a She. |
4. as a term of address to a man [20C+ usage is primarily US; thus note Jackson n.3 (1)].
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 102: How now, Jack, says one of them. | |
| Complete Jest Book 143: Pr’ythee, Jack, which is the way to Windsor? | |
| Little Ragamuffin 146: I say, Jack [...] d’ye happen to have seen a kid in an old corderoy jacket [etc.]. | |
| Road 84: We became pretty chummy, [...] He called me ‘Jack,’ and I called him ‘Jack.’. | |
| Enormous Room (1928) 56: Hey Jack, give me a cigarette, Jack. | |
| Tropic of Cancer (1963) 279: Under my breath I simply said, ‘Fuck you, Jack!’ and let it go at that. | |
| Big Sleep 55: He looked me over. ‘Cop?’ ‘Private.’ He grinned. ‘My meat, Jack.’. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 21 June 13: I got the flicker [...] that the Square wanted us to be like the Bear, Jack, absolutely nowhere. | |
| Really the Blues 99: Mmmmmmm, that sure smells good, Jack. | |
| Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 160: A world pungent with the smoke of Woods [...] where physical contacts were virtually unconscious, ‘mate’ and ‘Jack’ obligatory. | |
| Howard Street 36: Ain’t nothin’, jack. I seen you around. | |
| Carlito’s Way 20: They got to kill me, Jack, kill me! | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 289: Then where you from, Jack? | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 254: A foot in the door, jack, that’s all I want. | |
| Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 239: And that’s a fack, Jack. | |
| Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 45: Fuck, you’re psycho, Jack. |
5. (Anglo-Ind., also Jack Sepoy) a sepoy.
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register May 52: [O]ur new kummadan (commandant) [...] dumcows (bullies) the native officers, and gallees (abuses) the Jacks (sepoys). | |
| Memoirs of a Griffin I 262: These are the men who square best with Jack Sepoy’s notions of a proper commander [...] It’s splendid to hear the colonel talk to the Jacks; he understands them thoroughly. | |
| Stray Leaves (1st ser.) 264: I saw Harry Helstone, a sergeant of ours [...] defending himself as best he could against no end of Jack sepoys! | |
| Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 15 Nov. 6/3: [I]t is quite obvious that his experience in this line has been entirely confined to Jack Sepoy. | |
| Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Dec. 4/3: Moodkee was a bayonet fight, and both Tommy Atkins and Jack Sepoy used it with rare energy on that November evening. |
6. (US, also country jack) a rustic, a peasant; a simpleton [underpinned by jake n.1 (1)].
| Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 108: An’ he wer a jack, ove the longes’ year’d kine. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 13 Oct. 6/3: Every village has its Jack, but no village ever had quite so fine a Jack as ours. | |
| 1300 Words 33: Jack — A simple fellow, a yokel [DARE]. | |
| ‘How to Talk in Hawaii’ AS XXVI:1 26: Some pidgin words have an archaic English flavor: humbug, country jack (jake), and rascal. | |
| in DARE. |
7. (US und.) a pimp.
| Courts, Criminals & the Camorra 231: They are known by the euphonious name of ‘Waps’ or ‘Jacks.’ These are young Italian-Americans who allow themselves to be supported by one or two women, almost never of their own race. |
8. see jack tar n.2
In compounds
a blunt person.
| Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart in Parkinson (Poems) (2000) IX line 58: Iok Blunt, thrawin frunt, kis the cunt of ane kow. | |
| Worcs. Chron. 24 Sept. 3/1: Jack Blunt once loved a maid whose with terracotta might compare. ‘My heart beats for you,’ he said. ‘No matter if your hair is red.’ [...] And he got left. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jack Blunt, a straightforward, outspoken man. | |
| Daily News 17 Nov. 5/4: He was at once a Jack Blunt and equal to a trick . |
the ‘boots’ or bootboy at an inn.
| Censor 1 Mar. 31: Six-pence to the chamber-maid, six-pence to the ostler, and six-pence to the jack-boot [OED]. | |
| Newcastle Mag. Mar. 128/1: We call him ‘Boots’, and from the habit of giving a common Christian name to all persons who attend in inns[...] Jack Boots, by which appellation he yet goes amongst old travellers. | |
| Truthteller 10 Nov. 202: The person who refused to admit me on that day,'was no other than a waiter, or jack boots, at the tavern. |
a boaster, a braggart.
| Dictionarie in Eng. and Latine n.p.: Jack Bragger and his fellow, [...] a Cracker. | |
| Morn. Chron. (London) 15 May 6/6: Our readers are probably acquainted with the character of Mr Hook’s ‘Jack Brag’. | |
| Devizes & Wilts. Gaz. 30 Mar. 4/2: Jack Brag [...] is the Parolles or Boabdil of low life [...] By sheer effrontery, tricks, and lying he is enabled to mix with persons in a higher sphere. |
(UK Und.) a dirty, contemptible man.
| New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: jake cove a dirty fellow, an impudent landlord. | |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: jack cove a dirty fellow. | |
| Flash Dict. | |
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| New and Improved Flash Dict. | |
| Vocabulum. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jack Cove, a little fellow. |
a foolish person.
| Miller’s Tale line 3708: Go fro the window, Iakke fool. | |
| ‘Iacke a Lent’ in Works (1869) I 113: To praise the Turnspit Iacke my Muse is mum, / Nor the entertainment of Iacke Drum [...] Nor of Jack Dog, Jack Dale / Jack Fool or Jack-a-Dandy I relate. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Cork Examiner 30 Dec. 2/5: John Collins, a well-known character, better known by the soubriquet of ‘Jack the Fool’. | |
| Lincs. Chron. 25 Aug. 3/4: You may sweat, you may growl, you may grunt' you may be a jack-fool if you must [...] but don’t take your troubles to bed. |
a man of low birth or manners who has pretensions to be a gentleman, an insolent fellow, an upstart.
| Monarchy or No Monarchy 100: This fellow [...] sayd openly , he hoped to live and see the time , when a Mr. of Arts or a Minister, should be as good a man as any Jack Gentleman in England. | |
| Answer to the Question out of North 13: What, Sir, do you think that it is fit for every Jack-Gentleman to speak thus to a Bishop? [OED]. | |
| Reproof to Rehearsal Transposed 480: Such (especially if they are broken Gamesters) I still say are no better than Jack Gentlemen. | |
| Answer to Sacheverell’s Sermon 9: In the time of King Charles [...] they despised the Gentry at such a rate, that it was a common thing to call them Jack Gentleman . | |
| Character of an Indep. Whig 6: This upstart, plebeian Priest, hoped to see the Time, when ne'er a Jack Gentleman in England would dare to stand before a Parson with his Hat on. |
a large masculine woman.
| ‘Ode Upon Ode’ Works (1794) I 438: No galloping horse-godmothers for me [...] Yet men there are (how strange are Love’s decrees!) Whose palates e’en Jack-Gentlewomen please. |
a fool.
| New Brawle 13: Prether tell me Jack Hold-my Staffe, did cripple-breech’d Bess wash it, or Bobbing Kate. | |
| Sir Patient Fancy V i: Madam, in plain English, I am made a John-a-Nokes of, Jack-hold-my-staff, a Merry Andrew. |
see jack-whore
(Irish) a discreet person; esp. in the phr. between you and me and jack mum.
| Best of Myles (1968) 50: Between yourself, meself and Jack Mum, Charley is a little bit given to the glawsheen. |
a sneaking, slovenly person.
| Western Times 25 Feb. 8/1: Draw sinners from the seat where sits the scorner, / And turn jack Nasty to a nice Jack Horner. | |
| Tom Brown’s School-Days 67: Tom [...] went on playing with the village boys, without the idea of equality or inequality [...] ever entering their heads, as it doesn’t till it’s put there by Jack Nastys or fine ladies’ maids. | |
| Sheffield Indep. 2 July 3/6: Every youngster with a spare pound or two in his pocket must have his valet or other Jack Nasty fiddling after him. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
the vagina.
| [ | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Jack nasty face, a sea expression signifying a common sailor]. |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 103: Jack nasty-face — a dirty fellow, seldom seen; but ‘going up Holborn-hill [...] a lady from St. Bartholemew’s took a lee lurch, and threw a ground summerset backwards, when all might plainly discern Jack nasty face’. | |
| [ | | Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jack Nastyface, a sailor]. |
a derog. term for a Roman Catholic.
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 204: King William [...] made Jack papishes run. | |
| Romany Rye I 326: Why, that red-haired Jack Priest, and that idiotic parson. |
(US) a slow, listless person.
| Amer. Thes. of Sl. 414: Listless or slow person. . . Jack poke. |
1. a jester or clown, travelling with a mountebank or itinerant quack; also attrib.
| Hist. Independ. I 21: The Junto-men, the Hocus-Pocusses, the State-Mountebanks, with their Zanyes and Jack-puddings! [OED]. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 14 30 Aug.–6 Sept. 126: Her son learnt this Art, when he was a Sea-boy, only was a little since taught some Pretty Tricks by a Jack-pudding neer Lung-Lane. | |
| Love In A Tub III iv: Sir, in a word, he was Jack-pudding to a Mountebank, And turn’d off for want of wit. | |
| Love in a Wood I i: But a pox he is a meer Buffoon, a Jack-pudding let me perish. | |
| Fumblers-Hall 9: Jone Would-have-more: [He] falls to kissing me, & with a few other Jack Puddings tricks, thinks that sufficient satisfaction. | |
| Rover V i: I should not have shew’d my self like a Jack-Pudding, thus to have made you Mirth. | |
| Bury Fair II i: Yes, he has found Wit in a Jack Pudding. | |
| London Spy II 47: A Mountebank and his Jack-Pudding [...] could not give more Content to a Crowd of Country Spectators. | |
| Amorous Widow 11: If I do may I turn Pudden to a Rope-Dancer, and shew Tricks next Bartholemew Fair. | |
| Rambling Fuddle-Caps 11: The compleatest Jack-pudding that we e’er saw before. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy III 8: And what’s Jack Pudding that makes us to Laugh, / Unless he has got a great Custard to quaff. | |
| Gulliver Decypher’d 46: Many a gaping Fellow is entertain’d with the Wit of Jack-pudding in Smithfield. | |
| Laugh and Be Fat 150: To the Taverns some go / And some to a Show, / See [...] Jack Puddings, For Cuddens. | |
| ‘The Legion Club’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 222: Such a Rout and such a Rabble / Run to hear Jack-pudding gabble. | |
| Voyage to Lethe 24: He has likewise a Couple of clumsy Englishmen in his Service, who act in the Capacity of Jack Puddings. | |
| The Tricks of the Town Laid Open (4 edn) 36: They [i.e. actors] had best take Care that by their Farces and Drolls, and their Jack-Pudding Tricks, they don’t at last pull their Houses upon their Heads. | |
| Author in Works (1799) I 157: A jack-pudding! that takes fillips on the nose for six-pence a piece! | |
| ‘The Dream’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 13: So Jack Puddings joke, with distorted grimace, / Benetting their Gudgeons, – the Croud. | |
| Northampton Mercury 31 May 2/2: To the Jack-Pudding Junto; or Market-Harborough Buffoons. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Bon Ton Mag. Mar. 35/1: ‘Pugh,’ says Old Surly, ‘I shall now expect / To see Jack Pudding treated with respect.’. | |
| Sporting Mag. May XVIII 105/2: Whenever Punch was absent, the Merry-Andrew or Jack-Pudding, amused the audience with a speech. | |
| Hist. of Billy Bradshaw 25: I put in a word for myself and offered to be his Merry Andrew or Jack Pudding. | |
| Larks of Logic, Tom and Jerry I ii: We laugh at [...] the tricks of the mountebank’s jack-pudding – because we despise the folly, and pity the fool. | |
| ‘The Leech of Folkestone’ Bentley’s Misc. July 106: The features were feline, but their expression that of the Jack-Pudding. | |
| Border Beagles (1855) 332: Our Jack Pudding! — our fellow for broad grin and buffoonery! | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Oct. 2/2: [This action] had great effect, and won for the jack pudding abundant eclat. | |
| Censor (London) 25 Jan. 5/2: Poke up (to the jack pudding) the Horse-marine with the long pole, and bid him tip the genlemen a chaunt. | |
| Gaslight and Daylight 17: (at a pantomime) Exultingly watch the Clown through his nefarious career; roar at Jack-pudding tumbling. | |
| Rochdale Obs. 20 Jan. 5/1: It may gratify the taste of this venal writer [...] to call Mr potter a ‘Jack Pudding’. | |
| in Bagford Ballads I 867: We suppose Serini to have been a contemporary Jack-Pudding, and fire-eater. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 8/4: [T]ell him (while you are rubbing his nose, &c) that the questions toIacke a Lent be settled at the coming elections are too momentous for Jack Puddings and professional tricksters to be allowed to draw their dirty cloaks over them. | |
| Hawaiian Star (Honolulu) 2 Apr. 4/1: Members neither come here to laugh, nor to make jack-puddings of themselves. | |
| (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 114: Hans Wurst: (German — wurst – sausage).The popular German nickname for a German infantryman [...] ‘Hans Wurst’ is a derisory term ordinarily, equivalent to ‘Silly Billy’, ‘Silly Johnny’, or the former-day ‘Jack Pudding’. |
2. the (unconscious) butt of others’ humour.
| Satirist (London) 18 Sept. 188/1: In every assembly there is some one man more officious, more ignorant, and more weak, than his fellows,—and against whom the keen dart of satire may be levelled, without the apprehension of its being felt or returned [...] On whomsoever this distinguishing mark of preference falls, he is sure to be [...] called a Jack-pudding. |
(UK Und.) a sneak-thief.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Jack-rats thieves who contrive to slip into and conceal themselves in people’s houses, and when all the family is gone to rest, let in their accomplices and rob the house. |
a saucy or impudent fellow.
| Damon and Pithias (1571) Fi: Here is a gaye worlde, Boyes now settes olde men to scoole, I sayd well enough, what Jacke sauce, thinkst cham a foole? | |
| Misogonus in (1906) II iii: liturg.: The Scripture so saith. cac.: The Scripture, you Jack Sauce! | |
| Three Ladies of London II: Come, sir Jack-sauce, make quick despatch at once. | |
| Henry V IV vii: If he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain, and a Jack-sauce, as ever his black shoe trod upon God’s ground. | |
| How A Man May Choose A Good Wife From A Bad Act IV: Why, you Iacke sawce, you Cuckold you what-not. | |
| Woman is a Weathercock II i: What say ye, Jack Sauce? | |
| Captives I ii: Jhon, y’are a Jack sauce, I meane a sawcye Jacke. | |
| City-Madam IV ii: Do you so, Jack sauce? | |
| Cutter of Coleman-street (1721) 745: Sure I am the older Man, Jack Sawce, and should be the wiser! | |
| in Comical Hist. of Don Quixote Pt 2 IV iii: How now, Jack Sawce! must come away! | |
| False Friend Act III: Why how now Jack Sauce? why how now Presumption? | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy V 287: A sword and buckler good and strong, To give jack-sauce a rap. | |
| Heart of Mid-Lothian (1883) 339: Well, Mr. Jack-Sauce, and what is your business to put in your oar? | |
| Manchester Eve. News 5 July 2/4: Henry Sherrington, alias ‘Jack Rat’, of Wigan, was charged. |
a meddlesome or interfering person, a busybody.
| Calvin’s Sermons to Timothie and Titus 853/2: Howe many iacke sticklers are there nowe adayes thou they be but ignorant and vnlearned [...] will needes shewe them selues to be somwhat by mouing troubles? | |
| (trans.) Gate of Languages Unlocked Ch. 86 837: A prying medler (busie-body, jack-stickler) crouds in and intrudeth [...] where it nothing concernes him. |
a nonentity, lit. a ‘man of straw’.
| Proverbes or Adagie of Erasmus xix Ciii: It becometh not Jacke Strawe to reason of princes maters. | |
| ‘Revels at Lincoln’s Inn’ in Progresses and Processions of Queen Elizabeth (1888) I 26: Lastly, that Jack Straw, and all his adherents should be thenceforth utterly banished. | |
| New Custom I i: As fit a sighte it were to see a goose shodde, or a sadled cowe, As to heare the pratlinge of any suche iacke strawe. | |
| Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart in Parkinson (Poems) (2000) IV line 31: Iak stro, be better anes ingynit Or I will flyt aganis my sell. | |
| Praise of the Red Herring 70: It shall be but the weight of a strawe, or the weight of Iacke Straw more. | |
| Defence of the People of England (1692) Pref. xviii: Thou dolt [...] and a Jack-straw, who dependest on the good will of thy Masters for a poor Stipend. | |
| ‘The Parliament-Complement’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 169: Original sin was damn’d by the Law, / The Son of a Cavalier made a Jack-straw. | |
| Love in a Wood I i: Know ’em, you are a sawcy Jack-straw to question me, (faith and troth) I know every body and every body knows me. | |
| Soldier’s Fortune IV i: Therefore are you to be murdered to-night [...] you Jack Straw, you. | |
| Homer in a nut-shell 47: Young Alexander, that Jacktraw, / Does boldly challenge Menelau. / He'd pay'd too dear for the Bravado, / And lost his Life without more ado. | |
| Sportsman 1 Sept. 2/1: Notes on News [...] If you want to make your fortune [...] you can do it by sending a dozen stamps to Jackstraw Welsher, Post-office, Anywhere. |
1. in pl., the testicles.
| 1652 Laughing Mercury 8-16 Sept. 178: The very Jack made Musick to the flesh upon the spit [...] til,. the Jack-waits broak their twatling-strings for joy. | |
| Strange Newes 3: Wand. Wh—. [I] receive the Spanish Rogue into my French quarters, where he turn’d the Pig so long till one of his best members was lost in the dripping pan, yet the Jack-weights are secure and hang fast still. |
2. a fat man.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Vocabulum. | |
| Londres et les Anglais 315/2: jack weight, homme corpulent. |
1. a large, tough prostitute .
| Sham Beggar I i: Now, Daddy, I advise you to go and pick up a damn’d large Jack Whore, and spend One Shilling upon her. | |
| Nancy Dawson’s Jests 36: From the luscious tit bit to the bouncing jack whore, / From the bunters in rags to the gay pompadore. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| ‘Nanny, The Frisky’ in Flash Casket 75: The blowens of Holborn, can’t grind, / The jack mots of Wapping, might any work do. | |
| Dict. of Provincialisms 90/1: A common woman of the most vulgar description a ‘Jack-Whore’. |
2. a womanizer.
| DSUE (8th edn) 609/1: mid-C.19–early 20. |
In phrases
a very fat man [obs. SE bonehouse, the human body].
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
1. a temporary clergyman, hired when the regular incumbent is absent.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Jack at a Pinch, a poor Hackney Parson. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| Life and Adventures. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Jack at a pinch, a poor hackney parson. |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Flash Dict. | |
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. |
2. one who is required only in an emergency or as a gapstop; thus an insignificant person.
| Forest Rose II iv: I won’t dance with any fellow Jack-at-pinch. [Ibid.] I will take no girl Jack-at-a-pinch. Tom Clover won’t have you, and I think myself as good as he. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn). | |
| Birmingham Dly Post 25 Dec. 2/7: Jack-at-a-Pinch had hard work to carry him upstairs and put him to bed. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jack at a Pitch, a person looked for on an emergency. | |
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 19 Feb. 5/6: Jack-at-a-pinch is the name given to anyone who leds a hand in an emergency. |
3. an odd-job man.
| Life and Adventures. |
(UK Und.) a friend in need.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
a pretender, an upstart.
| Chicago Trib. 29 May n.p.: The latest contribution to the history of the Rebellion is from the pen of that eminent truth-teller, Don Piatt. In ‘Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln,’ between the covers of which he has been allowed to obtrude, he says of himself: ‘My one act made Maryland a free State.’ Of Mr. Lincoln he says: ‘The President never forgave me.’ That was because you escaped his memory entirely, Mr. Jackin-the pulpit [B&L]. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
a waterman’s attendant, who helps passengers on and off boats.
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II 225/1: I ran away and tried my hand at a Jack-in-the-water. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. 160: jack-in-the-water, an attendant at the watermen’s stairs on the river and sea-port towns, who does not mind wetting his feet for a customer’s convenience, in consideration of a douceur. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| (con. 1835–40) Bold Bendigo 112: He had practically lived by his fists ever since he began life as a ‘jack-in-the-water’ on the Thames. |
(US) a good fellow, man.
| Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 27 Apr. 39: That evening Lieutenant Barker or in other words the bold Jack of Clubs made a visit on board. | |
| Down in Tennessee 109: Tom, you are a trump – the very Jack of clubs. | |
| in Schaaf Mr Dooley’s Chicago (1977) 260: That grand ol’ jack iv clubs, th’ Hon. Jawn Im Pammer. |
a Dover sole.
| Quip for an Upstart Courtier in Harleian Misc. (1809) 244: To praise the Turnspit Iacke my Muse is mum, / Nor the entertainment of Iacke Drum / [...] / Nor Iacke of Douer that Grand Iury Iacke, / Nor Iacke Sawce (the worst knaue mongst the packe). | |
| Worthies (1840) II 125: A jack of Dover. I find the first mention of this proverb in our English Ennius, Chaucer, in his poem to the cook: ‘And many a jack of Dover he had sold, / Which had been two times hot, and two times cold’. |
1. a tall, long-legged man.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Sl. Dict. (1890). |
2. an outsize clasp-knife.
| DSUE (8th edn) 608/1: C.18–19. |
(UK Und.) a confidence trickster, specializing in selling supposedly purpose-written pamphlets, poems etc, which flatter the vanity of the purchaser but which are, in fact, mass-produced with a personalized dedication tacked on.
| Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 6: There is another Fraternitie of wandring Pilgrimes, who merrily call themselves Iackes of the Clocke-house, and are verry neere allyed to the Falconers that went a Hawking before [...] The lacke of a Clocke-house goes uppon Skrewes, and his office is to do nothing but strike: so does this noise, (for they walke up and downe like Fidlers) trauaile with Motions; and whatsoever their Motions get them, is called striking. Those Motions are certaine Collections, or witty Inuentions, some-times of one thing, and then of an other. | |
| Martin Mark-all 7: Up starts a ragged ouer roasted Iacke of the Clocke-house. |
a vagrant, one who has been thrown out of his house.
| Dictionarie in Eng. and Latine 569: Not altogether Iack out of doores, and yet no gentleman. |
(UK Und.) a policeman.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 65/1: In a moment after the ‘office’ was given, the ‘jigger’ was ‘slewed,’ and barricaded by half-a-dozen of determined ‘guns’ who were resolute that no Jack-the-wrong-man should enter there that night. |
(US tramp) a one-legged, one-armed or one-eyed beggar.
| in Atlantic Monthly Dec. 773/1: The detested single-jacks were relegated to a Bowery within a Bowery. |