jig

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“
For both Penn and Schoen and their serial unethical activity as political consultants, the jig is almost up.

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Definitions (47)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. noun Any of various lively dances in triple time.
  2. noun The music for such a dance. Also called gigue.
  3. noun A joke or trick. Used chiefly in the phrase The jig is up.
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Examples (50)

  • As if to prove that the jig is up, the "man-made global warming" cult's bible, the —  PTBC J-Log
  • We biked around, stopped on the beach for a jig, and climbed up to a monument to defaced it with hilarious tourist pictures. —  TravelPod.com Recent Updates
  • Unless the boomers produced 3.0 children per coupling, the jig was up. —  Hennessy's View
  • By no coincidence, at around this time side letters began to disappear in the insurance industry, suggesting to many observers that the industry finally realized that the jig was up. —  SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page
  • Once the jig is up - the drama starts ... gemdilem: I wouldn't exactly call it stalking ... although we are going to maitland just to see you guys —  Polaroids of Androids - News
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

hornpipe ·  waltz ·  polka ·  ditty ·  rigadoon ·  minuet ·  gavotte ·  revel ·  romp ·  reel
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Origin unknown.
  2. Probably shortening of jigaboo.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. An assimilated form of the older gig (with hard initial g), from Middle English gigge (See gig); from Old French gigue, gige, a fiddle, also a kind of dance, modern F. gigue, a lively tune or dance, = Provencal gigua, guiga, a fiddle, = Old Spanish giga, a fiddle, Spanish Portuguese giga, a lively tune or dance, = Old Italian giga, a fiddle, = Italian giga, a lively tune or danoe, from Old Dutch *gīge, Middle Dutch ghighe = Middle Low German *gīge, gigel = Middle High German gīge, German geige = Icelandic gīgja = Swedish giga, a fiddle (obsolete), also a jews'-harp, = Danish gige, a fiddle, also (after English or F.) a lively dance. The earliest sense, ‘a fiddle,’ is involved in jig, v., play the fiddle: see jig, v., and gig, n. As with other familiar words of homely aspect, the senses are more or less involved and inconstant. In part prob. due to jig, v., as a variant of jog: see jig, v.
  2. from Old French giguer = Provencal gigar, play the fiddle (cf. Middle Low German gigeln = Middle High German gīgen, German geigen = Icelandic gīgja, play the fiddle); from the noun. No orig. verb has been established. The English use of jig in the second sense, though easily explained by reference to the quick motion implied in the other senses, may be due in part to association with jog. Cf. jigjog, jickajog.
 

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/dʒɪg/
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