jerks n.1
1. a hangover.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | DSUE (8th edn) 617/1: from ca. 1820. |
2. (US) constr. with the, the physical writhings that are evinced by one who is supposedly possessed of the Holy Spirit.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 119: All the negroes sang, screamed and prayed. Several, under the influence [...] ‘the jerks,’ were plunging and pitching about with convulsive energy. | |
 | Circuit Rider xii: These Methodis’ sets people crazy with the jerks [F&H]. | |
| New York Day By Day 18 Oct. [synd. col.] Now and then when I hear chess mentioned I get a case of the camp meeting jerks. | |
| (con. 1900s) Elmer Gantry 33: One man, suspected of Holy Roller sympathies, managed to have the jerks. |
3. (US) constr. with the, acute anxiety.
| John Barleycorn (1989) 24: I read as I walked to and from school, and I read at recess while the other boys were playing. I began to get the ‘jerks.’ To everybody I replied: ‘Go away. You make me nervous.’ [* this is not alcohol induced]. | |
| Blood and Thirsty (1952) 196: Jeez, Waddy, this joint gives me the jerks. |
In phrases
to tease, to hoax.
| (con. WWI) Old Soldiers Never Die (1964) 196: He said that he has heard that yarn before and that we old soldiers were all the same, we thought we knew everything and that every old soldier he had met had given him the jerks. |