crevalle-jack Unabridged


1 [jak]
Also called jackstone. Games.
jacks, (used with a singular verb) a children's game in which small metal objects, stones, pebbles, or the like, are tossed, caught, and moved on the ground in a number of prescribed ways, usually while bouncing a rubber ball.
any of several carangid fishes, especially of the genus Caranx, as C. hippos (crevalle jack or jack crevalle) of the western Atlantic Ocean.
Slang: Vulgar. jack shit.
(initial capital letter) a sailor.
a lumberjack.
a jackass.
a device for turning a spit.
a premigratory young male salmon.
Theater, brace jack.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
Verb phrases
jack off, Slang: Vulgar. to masturbate.

1350–1400; Middle English jakke, Jakke used in addressing any male, especially a social inferior, variant of Jakken, variant of Jankin, equivalent to Jan John + -kin -kin; extended in sense to anything male, and as a designation for a variety of inanimate objects Unabridged
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World English Dictionary
jack1 (dʒæk)
1.  a man or fellow
2.  a sailor
3.  the male of certain animals, esp of the ass or donkey
4.  a mechanical or hydraulic device for exerting a large force, esp to raise a heavy weight such as a motor vehicle
5.  any of several mechanical devices that replace manpower, such as a contrivance for rotating meat on a spit
6.  one of four playing cards in a pack, one for each suit, bearing the picture of a young prince; knave
7.  bowls a small usually white bowl at which the players aim with their own bowls
8.  electrical engineering a female socket with two or more terminals designed to receive a male plug (jack plug) that either makes or breaks the circuit or circuits
9.  Compare Union Jack a flag, esp a small flag flown at the bow of a ship indicating the ship's nationality
10.  nautical either of a pair of crosstrees at the head of a topgallant mast used as standoffs for the royal shrouds
11.  a part of the action of a harpsichord, consisting of a fork-shaped device on the end of a pivoted lever on which a plectrum is mounted
12.  any of various tropical and subtropical carangid fishes, esp those of the genus Caranx, such as C. hippos (crevalle jack)
13.  Also called: jackstone one of the pieces used in the game of jacks
14.  applejack bootjack jackass jackfish jack rabbit short for lumberjack
15.  (US) a slang word for money
16.  every man jack everyone without exception
17.  slang (Austral) the jack venereal disease
18.  slang (Austral) jack of tired or fed up with (something)
19.  to lift or push (an object) with a jack
20.  electrical engineering to connect (an electronic device) with another by means of a jack and a jack plug
21.  (US), (Canadian) Also: jacklight to hunt (fish or game) by seeking them out or dazzling them with a flashlight
[C16 jakke, variant of Jankin, diminutive of John]

jack or jak2 (dʒæk)
short for jackfruit
[C17: from Portuguese jaca; see jackfruit]
jak or jak2
[C17: from Portuguese jaca; see jackfruit]

jack3 (dʒæk)
1.  a short sleeveless coat of armour of the Middle Ages, consisting usually of a canvas base with metal plates
2.  archaic a drinking vessel, often of leather
[C14: from Old French jaque, of uncertain origin]

Jack (dʒæk)
informal (Brit) I'm all right, Jack
 a.  a remark indicating smug and complacent selfishness
 b.  (as modifier): an ``I'm all right, Jack'' attitude

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History

masc. proper name, 1218, probably an Anglicization of O.Fr. Jacques (which was a dim. of L. Jacobus, see Jacob), but in Eng. the name always has been associated with Johan, Jan "John," and some have argued that it is a native formation. Alliterative coupling of Jack and Jill
is from 15c. (Ienken and Iulyan). As a generic name addressed to an unknown stranger, it is attested from 1889 in Amer.Eng. Used especially of sailors (1659; Jack-tar is from 1781).

late 14c., jakke "a mechanical device," from the name Jack. Used by 14c. for "any common fellow" (mid-14c.), and thereafter extended to various appliances replacing servants (1570s). Used generically of men (jack-of-all-trades, 1610s), male animals (1620s, see jackass, jackdaw,
etc.), and male personifications (1520s, e.g. Jack Frost). The jack in a pack of playing cards (1670s) is in Ger. Bauer "peasant." Jackhammer is from 1930. Jack shit "nothing at all" is 1970s southern U.S. student slang. The jack of Union Jack is a nautical term for a small flag at the bow of a ship (1630s).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

jack definition

  1. n.
    money. : I don't have the jack for a deal like that.
  2. n.
    tobacco for rolling cigarettes. : You got some jack I can bum?
  3. n.
    nothing. (Probably from jack-shit.) : Your last idea wasn't worth jack. Do I pay you to come up with stuff that bad?
  4. n.
    a strange person; an annoying person. (Possibly from jackass or jack-shit.) : Willy, stop acting like such a jack!
  5. tv.
    to steal something. : I didn't buy it, I jacked it!
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw-Hill Education.
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