Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Informal A man; a fellow.
  • noun One who does odd or heavy jobs; a laborer.
  • noun One who works in a specified manual trade. Often used in combination.
  • noun A sailor; a tar.
  • noun Games A playing card showing the figure of a servant or soldier and ranking below a queen.
  • noun A game played with a set of small six-pointed metal pieces and a small ball, the object being to pick up the pieces in various combinations.
  • noun One of the metal pieces so used.
  • noun Sports A pin used in some games of bowling.
  • noun A usually portable device for raising heavy objects by means of force applied with a lever, screw, or hydraulic press.
  • noun A wooden wedge for cleaving rock.
  • noun A device used for turning a spit.
  • noun A support or brace, especially the iron crosstree on a topgallant masthead.
  • noun A small flag flown at the bow of a ship, usually to indicate nationality.
  • noun The male of certain animals, especially the ass.
  • noun Any of various food and game fishes of the family Carangidae, found in tropical and temperate seas.
  • noun A jackrabbit.
  • noun A socket that accepts a plug at one end and attaches to electric circuitry at the other.
  • noun Slang Money.
  • noun Applejack.
  • noun Slang A small or worthless amount.
  • intransitive verb To hunt or fish for with a jacklight.
  • intransitive verb To move or hoist by using a jack. Often used with up:
  • intransitive verb To raise (something) to a higher level, as in cost. Often used with up:
  • intransitive verb Baseball To hit (a pitched ball) hard, especially for a home run.
  • intransitive verb To steal.
  • intransitive verb To rob or cheat.
  • intransitive verb To hunt or fish by using a jacklight.
  • intransitive verb To plug into an electronic device by means of a jack.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coat of fence of cheap make worn by foot-soldiers, yeomen, and the like.
  • To operate on with a jack; lift with a jack.
  • To hunt with a jack. See jack, n., 11 .
  • To use a jack in hunting or fishing; seek or find game by means of a jack.
  • noun A Jacqueminot rose. Also Jacque.
  • noun Same as jack-tree.
  • noun The fruit of the jack-tree: same as jackfruit.See jack-tree.
  • In leather manufacturing, to roll by means of a roller attached to an arm.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the name Jack, from Middle English Jakke, possibly from Old French Jacques, from Late Latin Iacōbus; see Jacob. N., sense 15, short for jack shit. V. tr., senses 4a and b, short for hijack.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English jakke ("any mechanical device"), from the name Jack, from Old French Jacques

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Examples

  • The portions of the operator's talking circuit that are located permanently in the switchboard cabinet are in such cases terminated in a jack, called an operator's _cut-in jack_.

    Cyclopedia of Telephony & Telegraphy Vol. 1 A General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. etc. George Patterson 1910

  • Bellinger recommends choosing one topic to focus on -- "the expression 'jack of all trades, master of none' holds true especially in the Web 2.0 world" -- and working on engaging with the top people in that area rather than trying to tackle all the world's problems at once.

    Lauren Zumbach: The New Twitter Revolution Lauren Zumbach 2011

  • Bellinger recommends choosing one topic to focus on -- "the expression 'jack of all trades, master of none' holds true especially in the Web 2.0 world" -- and working on engaging with the top people in that area rather than trying to tackle all the world's problems at once.

    Lauren Zumbach: The New Twitter Revolution Lauren Zumbach 2011

  • Bellinger recommends choosing one topic to focus on -- "the expression 'jack of all trades, master of none' holds true especially in the Web 2.0 world" -- and working on engaging with the top people in that area rather than trying to tackle all the world's problems at once.

    Lauren Zumbach: The New Twitter Revolution Lauren Zumbach 2011

  • Bellinger recommends choosing one topic to focus on -- "the expression 'jack of all trades, master of none' holds true especially in the Web 2.0 world" -- and working on engaging with the top people in that area rather than trying to tackle all the world's problems at once.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Lauren Zumbach 2011

  • "You cannot become an expert if one day you work in maternity, the other day you work in the long-term care, and then you are in emergency room," she said, referencing the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com CP 2012

  • And so she proved, in small things at first, as translator, courier, embassy bricoleur - what you call jack-of-all-trades - and later as secret agent in the field ... and you know what that means.

    Watershed 2010

  • You would think that since the jack is the same the requirements are the same.

    Apple question « BuzzMachine 2005

  • And so she proved, in small things at first, as translator, courier, embassy bricoleur - what you call jack-of-all-trades - and later as secret agent in the field ... and you know what that means.

    Flashman And The Tiger Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1999

  • I felt sure it wasn't any sort of craft, but I had heard of strange lights being seen at times on the water -- what they call jack-o'-lanterns, I believe, sir.

    A Master of Mysteries L. T. Meade 1884

Comments

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  • "Jack's Heroes" by the Pogues, but there must be a million songs with this name in the title... "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp, "Jack Hinks" by Great Big Sea, "Jack the Green" by Tanglefoot, "Jumpin' Jack Flash"...

    "New Tatter Jack" is a pretty common fife tune.

    "Jackie Wilson Said" by Van Morrison, though to be fair that should be listed under "Jackie"...

    February 9, 2008

  • Don't forget Hit The Road, Jack, by Ray Charles...

    February 9, 2008

  • Citation (in the sense of a sailor) on nice.

    September 9, 2008

  • Jack? I liked a dude named Jake. He was sexy. I'm sad we had to leave. I still have the ping-pong ball he gave me. He had a friend named Trever, he was cute,but he was older than me and he didn't interested.

    May 23, 2009

  • Good God, are you *trying* to stalk me?

    May 25, 2009

  • Out of 131 nominal meanings, CD puts 'A Jacqueminot rose' at number 1.

    November 17, 2011

  • the jack of all trades then, right?... arise arose is a rose (arosen..arisen)?

    November 17, 2011

  • Seems there ought to be myriad etymologies.

    December 6, 2015