Definitions

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

  • noun A large, often rounded vessel of earthenware, glass, or metal with a small mouth, a handle, and usually a stopper or cap.
  • noun The amount that a jug can hold.
  • noun A small pitcher.
  • noun Slang A jail.
  • noun Vulgar Slang A woman's breasts.
  • transitive verb To stew (a hare, for example) in an earthenware jug or jar.
  • transitive verb Slang To put into jail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sound fancied to resemble the note uttered by the nightingale and some other birds.
  • To utter a particular sound resembling this word, as certain birds do, especially the nightingale.
  • To nestle together; collect in a covey, as partridges: sometimes used as transitive with reflexive pronoun.
  • noun A vessel, usually made of earthenware, metal, or glass, of various sizes and shapes, and generally provided with a handle or ear, used for holding and conveying liquors; a drinking-vessel; a pitcher; a ewer; in the United States, specifically, an earthenware vessel with a swelling or a cylindrical body, a handle, and a narrow neck and orifice, usually stopped by a cork. As a quantity of ale or beer, a jug is usually a pint.
  • noun A prison; a jail: often called the stone jug.
  • noun A low woman.
  • noun An act of worship by a Brahman supposed to give him preternatural power.
  • To put into a jug; cook by putting into a jug, and this into boiling water.
  • To commit to jail; imprison.

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

  • noun A vessel, usually of coarse earthenware, with a swelling belly and narrow mouth, and having a handle on one side.
  • noun engraving A pitcher; a ewer.
  • noun Slang A prison; a jail; a lockup.
  • noun vulgar slang A woman's breasts.
  • transitive verb To seethe or stew, as in a jug or jar placed in boiling water.
  • transitive verb Slang To commit to jail; to imprison.
  • intransitive verb (Zoöl.) To utter a sound resembling this word, as certain birds do, especially the nightingale.
  • intransitive verb To nestle or collect together in a covey; -- said of quails and partridges.

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

  • noun A serving vessel or container, circular in cross-section and typically higher than it is wide, with a relatively small mouth or spout, a handle and often a stopper or top.
  • noun The amount that a jug can hold.
  • noun slang Jail.
  • noun vulgar, slang A woman's breasts.
  • noun New Zealand A kettle.
  • verb transitive To stew in an earthenware jug etc.
  • verb transitive, slang To put into jail.
  • verb intransitive To utter a sound like "jug", as certain birds do, especially the nightingale.
  • verb intransitive To nestle or collect together in a covey.

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

  • noun the quantity contained in a jug
  • verb stew in an earthenware jug
  • noun a large bottle with a narrow mouth
  • verb lock up or confine, in or as in a jail

Etymologies

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

[Middle English jugge.]

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Examples

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  • An informal name for the Scots pint, equal to about 1.80 U.S. liquid quarts (1.7 liters). Specifically, the jug of Stirling, the actual vessel on display at the Stirling Museum, was the legal standard for Scottish volume measurements before British Imperial units.

    November 6, 2007

  • To cook in an earthenware pot, as in this 1854 recipe for jugged hare: Link

    April 19, 2011