jack in the box, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jack in the box n.¹

1. the consecrated host.

1555		Bishop Ridley Last Exam. in Foxe Acts and Monuments (1583) 1759: Rayling billes agaynst the sacramente, termynge it ‘Iacke of the boxe’, ‘the sacramente of the halter’, ‘round Robin’, with like vnseemely termes [OED].
1869		(ref. to mid-16C) Australasian (Melbourne) 3 Apr. 27/2: Popular slang called the mystery of the Sacrament by the irreverent appellation of ‘Jack-in-the-box’.

2. (UK Und., also jack in a box) a street pedlar; usu. one who doubles as a confidence trickster [the box of goods that is carried].

1623		Middleton & Rowley Spanish Gypsy IV i: Jack-in-boxes [...] That cozen fools with gilt rings.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Jack in a Box, c. a sharper, or Cheat.
1699		N. Ward London Spy III 67: [There] stood here and there a Jack in a Box, like a Parson in a Pulpit, Selling Cures for your Corns, Glass-Eyes for the Blind, Ivory Teeth for Broken Mouths and Spectacles for the weak Sighted.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 202: Bleaters, they that are cheated by Jack in a Box.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Jack in a box, a sharper, or cheat.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

3. (also jack in a box) an unborn child.

1796		Sporting Mag. Oct. IX 56/2: But young Jack in the Box will spoil all, bye and by.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 315/2: jack in a box, enfant qui n’est pas encore né.

4. (UK Und.) a form of screw used in safe-breaking [box n.¹ (2d)].

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1869		Australiasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: [A] Jack in (he box is is a screw used to break open a safe ; the operation is called nut-cracking.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jack in the Box, a powerful screw used by burglars.

5. the penis [it ‘pops up’].

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 34: Penis [...] jack-in-the-box.

6. (US Und.) breaking and entering a house or apartment [box n.¹ (3b)].

1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 78: Jack in the box – house-breaking.