jack
jacks; jacked; jacking
If you're ever stranded beside the highway with a flat tire, what you need is a jack and a spare tire. With a jack, you can lift the car slightly off the ground and change the tire.
Most cars have an emergency jack in the trunk, and repair shops have larger jacks, sometimes called "garage jacks," that can raise the car high enough for a mechanic to work underneath it. To lift this way is to jack something. Other kinds of jacks include game pieces and playing cards. In Middle English, as now, the name Jack was used for "ordinary guy," a meaning that transferred to basic tools, generic men, and male animals.
Definitions of jack
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tool for exerting pressure or lifting
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types:
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bumper jack
a jack for lifting a motor vehicle by the bumper
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jackscrew, screw jack
screw-operated jack
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type of:
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tool
an implement used in the practice of a vocation
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bumper jack
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lift with a special device
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someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor
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synonyms:
laborer, labourer, manual laborer
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types:
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agricultural laborer, agricultural labourer
a person who tills the soil for a living
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bracero
a Mexican laborer who worked in the United States on farms and railroads in order to ease labor shortages during World War II
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cleaner
someone whose occupation is cleaning
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day laborer, day labourer
a laborer who works by the day; for daily wages
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digger
a laborer who digs
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dishwasher
someone who washes dishes
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drudge, galley slave, navvy, peon
a laborer who is obliged to do menial work
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gandy dancer
a laborer in a railroad maintenance gang
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gravedigger
a person who earns a living by digging graves
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hewer
a person who hews
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hand, hired hand, hired man
a hired laborer on a farm or ranch
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hod carrier, hodman
a laborer who carries supplies to masons or bricklayers
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gipsy, gypsy, itinerant
a laborer who moves from place to place as demanded by employment
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faller, feller, logger, lumberjack, lumberman
a person who fells trees
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miner, mineworker
laborer who works in a mine
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mule driver, mule skinner, muleteer, skinner
a worker who drives mules
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platelayer, tracklayer
a workman who lays and repairs railroad tracks
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porter
a person employed to carry luggage and supplies
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rail-splitter, splitter
a laborer who splits logs to build split-rail fences
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sawyer
one who is employed to saw wood
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section hand
a laborer assigned to a section gang
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sprayer
a worker who applies spray to a surface
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stacker
a laborer who builds up a stack or pile
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steeplejack
someone who builds or maintains very tall structures
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dock worker, dock-walloper, docker, dockhand, dockworker, loader, longshoreman, lumper, stevedore
a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port
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fireman, stoker
a laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship)
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woodcutter
cuts down trees and chops wood as a job
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wrecker
someone who demolishes or dismantles buildings as a job
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yardman
a laborer hired to do outdoor work (such as mowing lawns)
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char, charwoman, cleaning lady, cleaning woman, woman
a human female employed to do housework
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chimneysweep, chimneysweeper, sweep
someone who cleans soot from chimneys
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coal miner, collier, pitman
someone who works in a coal mine
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ditch digger, mud digger
a laborer who digs ditches
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farm worker, farmhand, field hand, fieldhand
a hired hand on a farm
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gold digger, gold miner, gold panner
a miner who digs or pans for gold in a gold field
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drover, herder, herdsman
someone who drives a herd
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housebreaker, housewrecker
a wrecker of houses
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knacker
someone who buys old buildings or ships and breaks them up to recover the materials in them
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peasant
one of a (chiefly European) class of agricultural laborers
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placer miner
a miner who extracts minerals from a placer by washing or dredging
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prospector
someone who explores an area for mineral deposits
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ranch hand
a hired hand on a ranch
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redcap
a porter who helps passengers with their baggage at a railroad station
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scorer
a logger who marks trees to be felled
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scourer
someone who cleanses by scouring
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cropper, sharecrop farmer, sharecropper
small farmers and tenants
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skycap
a porter who helps passengers with their baggage at an airport
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groom, hostler, ostler, stableboy, stableman
someone employed in a stable to take care of the horses
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street cleaner, street sweeper
a worker employed to clean streets (especially one employed by a municipal sanitation department)
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strip miner
a miner who does strip mining
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swagger, swaggie, swagman
an itinerant Australian laborer who carries his personal belongings in a bundle as he travels around in search of work
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tinker
formerly a person (traditionally a Gypsy) who traveled from place to place mending pots and kettles and other metal utensils as a way to earn a living
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trencher
someone who digs trenches
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window cleaner
someone who cleans windows for pay
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type of:
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working man, working person, workingman, workman
an employee who performs manual or industrial labor
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a small ball at which players aim in lawn bowling
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type of:
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ball
round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games
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ball
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game equipment consisting of one of several small six-pointed metal pieces that are picked up while bouncing a ball in the game of jacks
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synonyms:
jackstones
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type of:
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game equipment
equipment or apparatus used in playing a game
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game equipment
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one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince
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synonyms:
knave
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type of:
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court card, face card, picture card
one of the twelve cards in a deck bearing a picture of a face
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court card, face card, picture card
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any of several fast-swimming predacious fishes of tropical to warm temperate seas
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types:
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Caranx hippos, crevalle jack, jack crevalle
fish of western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
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Caranx bartholomaei, yellow jack
fish of western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
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Caranx crysos, blue runner, runner
fish of western Atlantic: Cape Cod to Brazil
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Elagatis bipinnulata, rainbow runner
streamlined cigar-shaped jack; good game fish
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leatherjack, leatherjacket
any of several New World tropical fishes having tiny embedded scales
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Alectis ciliaris, thread-fish, threadfish
fish having greatly elongated front rays on dorsal and anal fins
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amberfish, amberjack
any of several amber to coppery fork-tailed warm-water carangid fishes
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Seriola dorsalis, yellowtail
game fish of southern California and Mexico having a yellow tail fin
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Seriola zonata, banded rudderfish, rudderfish
fish having the habit of following ships; found in North American and South American coastal waters
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Seriola grandis, kingfish
large game fish of Australia and New Zealand
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type of:
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carangid, carangid fish
a percoid fish of the family Carangidae
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male donkey
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an electrical device consisting of a connector socket designed for the insertion of a plug
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types:
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phone jack, telephone jack
a jack for plugging in a telephone
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type of:
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electrical device
a device that produces or is powered by electricity
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phone jack, telephone jack
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immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit; it contains an edible pulp and nutritious seeds that are commonly roasted
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type of:
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edible fruit
edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh
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edible fruit
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small flag indicating a ship's nationality
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type of:
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flag
emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design
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flag
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a small worthless amount“you don't know jack”
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synonyms:
diddley, diddly, diddly-squat, diddlysquat, doodly-squat, squat
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type of:
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small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity
an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude
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small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity
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hunt with a jacklight
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synonyms:
jacklight
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type of:
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hunt, hunt down, run, track down
pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals)
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hunt, hunt down, run, track down
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘jack'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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