Definitions

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

  • noun A cylindrical glass or earthenware vessel with a wide mouth and usually no handles.
  • noun The amount that a jar can hold.
  • noun Chiefly British A glass of beer.
  • transitive verb To put into a jar.
  • intransitive verb To cause shaking or vibrations.
  • intransitive verb To shake or vibrate from an impact or impacts.
  • intransitive verb To be disturbing or irritating; grate.
  • intransitive verb To be out of harmony; clash or conflict.
  • intransitive verb To cause to shake or vibrate from impact.
  • intransitive verb To startle or unsettle; shock.
  • noun A jolt; a shock.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To produce a brief rattling or tremulous sound; be discordant in sound.
  • To grate on the ear or the feelings; have a jangling or discordant quality; clash.
  • To receive a short, rattling, tremulous motion, as from an impulse; shake joltingly.
  • To sound or tick in vibrating, as a pendulum; hence, to be marked off by regular vibrations or ticks.
  • To speak or talk clatteringly or discordantly; haggle; dispute; quarrel.
  • To make discordant.
  • To impart a short, tremulous motion to; cause to shake or tremble; disturb.
  • To make rough; roughen.
  • To drill by impact or percussion; use an impact drill or drill-jar upon.
  • To shock or surprise (one) with some sudden or extraordinary remark, statement, or fact.
  • noun A turn: used separately only in the occasional colloquial phrases on a jar, on the jar, usually ajar, on the turn; turned a little way, as a door or gate.
  • noun An earthen or glass vessel of simple form, without handle or spout.
  • noun The quantity contained in a jar; the contents of a jar.
  • noun A tool, used in drilling wells in rock, consisting of two long and flat links capable of sliding the one within the other, in order that the drill-bit may be loosened on the up stroke in case it has become jammed in the lock.
  • noun A rattling sound; a harsh sound; a discord.
  • noun A clashing of interest or opinions; collision; discord; debate; conflict: as, family jars.
  • noun A short tremulous motion or vibration, as from an impulse; a sudden shaking or quiver: as, to feel the jar of an earthquake, or from blasting.
  • noun A clicking or ticking vibration, as of a pendulum; a tick.
  • noun plural A sliding joint in the boring-rods used in rope-drilling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A turn.
  • noun on the turn, ajar, as a door.
  • noun A deep, broad-mouthed vessel of earthenware or glass, for holding fruit, preserves, etc., or for ornamental purposes
  • noun The measure of what is contained in a jar
  • noun See in the Vocabulary.
  • intransitive verb To give forth a rudely quivering or tremulous sound; to sound harshly or discordantly.
  • intransitive verb To act in opposition or disagreement; to clash; to interfere; to quarrel; to dispute.
  • transitive verb To cause a short, tremulous motion of, to cause to tremble, as by a sudden shock or blow; to shake; to shock
  • transitive verb obsolete To tick; to beat; to mark or tell off.
  • noun A rattling, tremulous vibration or shock; a shake; a harsh sound; a discord
  • noun Clash of interest or opinions; collision; discord; debate; slight disagreement.
  • noun A regular vibration, as of a pendulum.
  • noun In deep well boring, a device resembling two long chain links, for connecting a percussion drill to the rod or rope which works it, so that the drill is driven down by impact and is jerked loose when jammed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small, approximately cylindrical container for food, normally made of glass or clay.
  • noun computing Java archive
  • noun computing JAR: Tool to create compressed file archives.
  • verb To knock or strike sharply.
  • verb to shock or surprise.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English jarre, a liquid measure, from Old French (from Provençal jarra) and from Medieval Latin jarra, both from Arabic jarra, earthen jar, from jarra, to draw, pull; see grr in Semitic roots.]

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

[Perhaps of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French jarre, from Arabic جره (jarrah, "earthern receptacle").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown; perhaps imitative.

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Examples

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  • Next to the jar is a box big enough to hold the jar, and a notecard that reads: Directions: Place vertigo in box.

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  • Andrew Davie - I'll venture that the hand in the jar is the key to all of this.

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  • Either Cochota or Ochota, the white Agua in the jar is a favorite.

    Christmas Dinner? 2007

  • Either Cochota or Ochota, the white Agua in the jar is a favorite.

    Christmas Dinner? 2007

  • Make sure if you use a container for your candle that the jar is a heat safe container.

    Archive 2007-10-01 Anne-Marie 2007

  • Either Cochota or Ochota, the white Agua in the jar is a favorite.

    Christmas Dinner? 2007

  • Either Cochota or Ochota, the white Agua in the jar is a favorite.

    Christmas Dinner? 2007

  • Either Cochota or Ochota, the white Agua in the jar is a favorite.

    Christmas Dinner? 2007

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  • Nothing can jar him—suffering and darkness cannot—death and fear cannot. Preface 1855

    December 9, 2006