Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To cut (meat) into long strips and dry in the sun or cure by exposing to smoke.
  • adjective Being or relating to a method of barbecuing meat that has been seasoned and wrapped in leaves of the allspice tree.
  • intransitive verb To give a sudden quick thrust, push, pull, or twist to.
  • intransitive verb To throw or toss with a quick abrupt motion.
  • intransitive verb To utter abruptly or sharply.
  • intransitive verb To make and serve (ice-cream sodas, for example) at a soda fountain.
  • intransitive verb Sports To press (a weight) overhead from shoulder height in a quick motion.
  • intransitive verb To move in sudden abrupt motions; jolt.
  • intransitive verb To make spasmodic motions.
  • noun A sudden abrupt motion, such as a yank or twist.
  • noun A jolting or lurching motion.
  • noun Physiology A sudden reflexive or spasmodic muscular movement.
  • noun Involuntary convulsive twitching often resulting from excitement. Often used with the.
  • noun Slang A foolish, rude, or contemptible person.
  • noun Sports A lift in which the weight is heaved overhead from shoulder height with a quick motion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To strike or beat, as with a whip or rod; strike smartly.
  • To pull or thrust with sudden energy; act upon with a twitching or snatching motion; move with quick, sharp force: of ten with a word or words of direction: as, to jerk open a door; the horse jerked out his heels.
  • To throw with a quick, sharp motion; specifically, to throw with the hand lower than the elbow, with an impulse given by sudden collision of the forearm with the hip: as, to jerk a stone.
  • To make a sudden spasmodic motion; give a start; move twitchingly.
  • To sneer; carp; speak sarcastically.
  • In the English custom-house, to search, as a vessel, for unentered goods.
  • To cure, as meat, especially beef, by cutting into long thin pieces and drying in the sun.
  • noun In golf, a stroke in which the club-head, after striking the ball, digs into the ground.
  • noun An abrupt witticism; a sudden sally of wit.
  • noun plural Chorea or tic.
  • noun Meat cut into strips and cured by drying it in the open air.
  • noun A short, sharp pull, thrust, or twitch; a sudden throw or toss; a jolt; a twitching or spasmodic motion.
  • noun A sudden spring or bound; a start; a leap; a sally.
  • noun An involuntary spasmodic contraction of a muscle, due to reflex action resulting from a blow or other external stimulus.
  • noun plural The paroxysms or violent spasmodic movements sometimes resulting from excitement in connection with religious services. Specifically called the jerks.
  • noun A sneer; sarcasm.

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

  • transitive verb To cut into long slices or strips and dry in the sun. See charqui.
  • intransitive verb To make a sudden motion; to move with a start, or by starts.
  • intransitive verb To flout with contempt.
  • transitive verb obsolete To beat; to strike.
  • transitive verb To give a quick and suddenly arrested thrust, push, pull, or twist, to; to yerk
  • transitive verb To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.
  • noun A short, sudden pull, thrust, push, twitch, jolt, shake, or similar motion.
  • noun A sudden start or spring.
  • noun Slang A foolish, stupid, or otherwise contemptible person.
  • noun (Sport) The lifting of a weight, in a single rapid motion, from shoulder height until the arms are outstretched above the head; distinguished from press in that the motion in a jerk is more rapid, and the body may be moved under the weight to assist completion of the movement.
  • noun British Calisthenic exercises, such as push-ups or deep knee bends; also called physical jerks.

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

  • noun Caribbean A rich, spicy Jamaican marinade
  • noun Caribbean Meat cured by jerking; charqui.
  • verb To cure (meat) by cutting it into strips and drying it, originally in the sun.
  • noun A sudden, often uncontrolled movement, especially of the body.
  • noun A quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
  • noun US, slang, pejorative A dull or stupid person.

Etymologies

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

[Back-formation from jerky.]

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From American Spanish charquear, from charqui, from Quechuan echarqui ("strips of dried flesh").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably from Middle English yerk ("sudden motion"), from Old English ġearc ("ready, active, quick"). Compare Old English ġearcian ("to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply"). Related to yare.

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Examples

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  • Sometimes used by engineers to describe the rate of change in the acceleration of an object. Also used as a unit of rate of change in acceleration equal to a change in acceleration of one foot per second per second in one second: 1 ft/sec3. In this usage, one jerk equals 0.3048 m/s3 or about 0.03108g/sec.

    November 6, 2007

  • The mid-1960s saw many dance crazes; one of the most popular ones was a dance called "the jerk." It consisted of holding the arms out in different positions and making thrusting motions with the hips. Though controversial for lewdness at the time, a particularly sexual version of the dance had become popular in Detroit clubs, called the "pimp jerk."

    The Capitols had a hit song called Cool Jerk. It was released on July 2, 1966 and was a smash hit, reaching as high as #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B charts.

    February 24, 2008

  • The speed of acceleration, as well as the acceleration of speed.

    More at Distance, speed, acceleration, and time.

    May 13, 2008

  • Caribbean jerk.

    November 28, 2009