jack

[[t]dʒæk[/t]]

n.

1) mac any of various portable devices for raising or lifting heavy objects short heights, using various mechanical, pneumatic, or hydraulic methods:

an automobile jack[/ex]

2) gam

Also called knave 2) a playing card bearing the picture of a soldier or servant.

3) elm a connecting device in an electrical circuit designed for the insertion of a plug:

a telephone jack[/ex]

4) inf (cap.) Informal. fellow; buddy; man (usu. used in addressing a stranger)

5) gam

a) one of a set of small, six-pointed metal objects or pebbles used in the game of jacks

b) jacks, (used with a sing. v.) a children's game in which these objects are tossed and gathered, usu. while bouncing a rubber ball

6) ich any of several carangid fishes, esp. of the genus Caranx

7) sts Slang. money

8) navig. a small flag flown at the bow of a vessel, usu. symbolizing its nationality

9) navig. (cap.) a sailor

10) lumberjack

11) jackass 1)

12) jacklight

13) new sts sl. anything at all; the least thing (usu. used in the negative):

You don't know jack[/ex]

14) a device for turning a spit

15) spo a small, usu. white bowl or ball used as a mark for lawn bowlers to aim at

16) ich a young male salmon before its migration

17) spo Falconry. the male of a kestrel, hobby, or esp. of a merlin

18) to lift or move (something) with or as if with a jack (usu. fol. by up):

to jack up a car[/ex]

19) inf to increase, raise, or accelerate (prices, wages, speed, etc.) (usu. fol. by up):

to jack up rents[/ex]

20) cvb inf to boost the morale of; encourage (usu. fol. by up)

21) to hunt or fish for with a jacklight

22) to hunt or fish with a jacklight

23) new phv sts jack off, vulgar sl. to masturbate

24) bui Carpentry. having a height or length less than that of most of the others in a structure: jack rafter; jack truss

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Etymology: 1350–1400; ME Jakke used in addressing any male, esp. a social inferior, var. of Jakken, var. of Jankin, =Jan John+-kin -kin