jackpot

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

• n. The accumulated stakes in a kind of poker that requires one to hold a pair of jacks or better in order to open the betting.
• n. A cumulative pool in a competition, lottery, or various other games.
• n. A top prize or reward.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• n. A money prize pool which accumulates until the conditions are met for it to be won.
• n. A large cash prize or money.
• n. An unexpected windfall or reward.
• n. A difficult situation.
• n. A jumble of felled timber.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• n. the name given to the stakes, contributions to which are made by each player successively, till such a hand is turned as shall take the “pot,” which is the sum total of all the bets. See also jackpot.
• n. Same as jack pot. See under jack.
• n. Any larger-than-usual gambling prize formed by the accumulation of unwon bets.
• n. The highest gambling prize awarded in a gambling game in which smaller prizes are also awarded, especially such a prize on a slot machine.
• n. An unusually large success in an enterprise, either unexpected or unpredictable, esp. one providing a great financial benefit.
• n. See under 2d Jack.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• n. In draw-poker, a pot or pool in which the ante must be repeated until some player can open the betting with a pair of jacks or better.
• n. In lumbering, an unskilful piece of work.
• n. A pile of logs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• n. any outstanding award
• n. the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker)