Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) absolutely nothing; always used with a qualifying negative v., e.g. you don’t know jack shit about...

1969		S.C. Wilson Time Warp Tales [comic bk] I cunt [sic] see jackshit.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 354: He didn’t own jackshit.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 128: We’ll pull middle guard and there is not jack-shit to do in the meantime.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 109: If I don’t go to the drive-in I don’t get jack from the Times Herald.
1993		J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 182: Don’t mean jack to me, man.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 291: The argument they had that summer didn’t have Jack Shit to do with whether or not Helga was gonna get a State of Maine driver’s licence.
1999		Africa News Service 29 Nov. 🌐 I wasted 1985 to 1989 hanging out doing jack (nothing).
2003		G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 208: ‘You bring Dewayne in?’ said Strange. ‘Yeah,’ said Grady. ‘He gave us jack shit.’.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 202: At this point, I can’t remember Jack.
2008		J. Niven Kill Your Friends (2009) 36: He, of course, written absolutely jack. A bunch of spear-chuckers [...] wrote the actual songs.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] I told Ron I didn’t know jack shit.
2014		B. Kroeber ‘Be My Alibi’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] You ain’t gotta do jack, boo.
2015		Observer 10 May 🌐 In truth, the average age of users doesn’t mean Jack.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 289: Some teacher who probably doesn’t know jack-shit about anything.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘The cops are telling me jack shit’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 108: ‘I’ll have your badge,’ Shahbazi says. ‘You’ll have jackshit’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 56: Snoopz was right there with man, you wasn’t doing jack shit.

2. (US) nonsense.

1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 259: If he gives you any of his jack-shit you say, ‘Senator, you got point.’.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 47: It was plain stupid, talkin’ that jack.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 204: ‘[T]he kid had been told [...] to give us nothing else than the jack shit we already had’.