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Part 6115

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<blockquote>Since every Jack became a gentleman, There 's many a gentle person made a Jack. Shak.</blockquote>

3. <def>A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also <altname>Jack tar</altname>, and <altname>Jack afloat</altname>.</def>

4. <def>A mechanical contrivance, an auxiliary machine, or a subordinate part of a machine, rendering convenient service, and often supplying the place of a boy or attendant who was commonly called Jack</def>; as: <sd>(a)</sd> <def>A device to pull off boots</def>. <sd>(b)</sd> <def>A sawhorse or sawbuck</def>. <sd>(c)</sd> <def>A machine or contrivance for turning a spit; a smoke <ex>jack</ex>, or kitchen <ex>jack</ex></def>. <sd>(b)</sd> <fld>(Mining)</fld> <def>A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting</def>. <sd>(e)</sd> <fld>(Knitting Machine)</fld> <def>A lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles</def>. <sd>(f)</sd> <fld>(Warping Machine)</fld> <def>A grating to separate and guide the threads; a heck box</def>. <sd>(g)</sd> <fld>(Spinning)</fld> <def>A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine</def>. <sd>(h)</sd> <def>A compact, portable machine for planing metal</def>. <sd>(i)</sd> <def>A machine for slicking or pebbling leather</def>. <sd>(k)</sd> <def>A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed</def>. <sd>(l)</sd> <def>A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught</def>. <sd>(m)</sd> <def>In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; -- called also <altname>hopper</altname></def>. <sd>(n)</sd> <def>In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself.</def> C. Hallock.

5. <def>A portable machine variously constructed, for exerting great pressure, or lifting or moving a heavy body through a small distance. It consists of a lever, screw, rack and pinion, hydraulic press, or any simple combination of mechanical powers, working in a compact pedestal or support and operated by a lever, crank, capstan bar, etc. The name is often given to a jackscrew, which is a kind of jack.</def>

6. <def>The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls.</def>

Shak.

<blockquote>Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon it. Sir W. Scott.</blockquote>

7. <def>The male of certain animals, as of the ass.</def>

8. <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld> <sd>(a)</sd> <def>A young pike; a pickerel.</def> <sd>(b)</sd> <def>The jurel.</def> <sd>(c)</sd> <def>A large, California rock fish (<spn>Sebastodes paucispinus</spn>); -- called also <altname>boccaccio</altname>, and <altname>m\'82rou</altname>.</def> <sd>(d)</sd> <def>The wall-eyed pike.</def>

9. <def>A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding a quarter of a pint.</def> [Prov. Eng.]

Halliwell.

10. <fld>(Naut.)</fld> <sd>(a)</sd> <def>A flag, containing only the union, without the fly, usually hoisted on a jack staff at the bowsprit cap; -- called also <altname>union jack</altname>. The American jack is a small blue flag, with a star for each State.</def> <sd>(b)</sd> <def>A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead, to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal shrouds; -- called also <altname>jack crosstree</altname>.</def>

R. H. Dana, Jr.

<hr> <page="795"> Page 795

11. <def>The knave of a suit of playing cards.</def>

<-- 12. (pl) same as jackstone (which see): A game played with small (metallic, with tetrahedrally oriented spikes) objects (the jacks(1950+), formerly jackstones) that are tossed, caught, picked up, and arranged on a horizontal surface in various patterns; in the modern American game, the movements are accompanied by tossing or bouncing a rubber ball on the horizontal surface supporting the jacks. 13. (slang) Money. 14 (MW10= 9) a. Apple jack. b. brandy -->

<note>&hand; Jack is used adjectively in various senses. It sometimes designates something cut short or diminished in size; as, a jack timber; a jack rafter; a jack arch, etc.</note>

<cs><col>Jack arch</col>, <cd>an arch of the thickness of one brick.</cd> -- <col>Jack back</col> <fld>(Brewing & Malt Vinegar Manuf.)</fld>, <cd>a cistern which receives the wort. See under 1st <er>Back</er>.</cd> -- <col>Jack block</col> <fld>(Naut.)</fld>, <cd>a block fixed in the topgallant or royal rigging, used for raising and lowering light masts and spars.</cd> -- <col>Jack boots</col>, <cd>boots reaching above the knee; -- worn in the 17 century by soldiers; afterwards by fishermen, etc.</cd><-- see jack-booted --> -- <col>Jack crosstree</col>. <fld>(Naut.)</fld> <cd>See 10, <it>b<it>, above.</cd> -- <col>Jack curlew</col> <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld>, <cd>the whimbrel.</cd> -- <col>Jack frame</col>. <fld>(Cotton Spinning)</fld> <cd>See 4 <sd>(g)</sd>, above.</cd> -- <col>Jack Frost</col>, <cd>frost personified as a mischievous person.</cd> -- <col>Jack hare</col>, <cd>a male hare. Cowper.</cd> -- <col>Jack lamp</col>, <cd>a lamp for still hunting and camp use. See def. 4 <sd>(n.)</sd>, above.</cd> -- <col>Jack plane</col>, <cd>a joiner's plane used for coarse work.</cd> -- <col>Jack post</col>, <cd>one of the posts which support the crank shaft of a deep-well-boring apparatus.</cd> -- <col>Jack pot</col> <fld>(Poker Playing)</fld>, <cd>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.</cd><-- see also jackpot --> -- <col>Jack rabbit</col> <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld>, <cd>any one of several species of large American hares, having very large ears and long legs. The California species (<spn>Lepus Californicus</spn>), and that of Texas and New Mexico (<spn>L. callotis</spn>), have the tail black above, and the ears black at the tip. They do not become white in winter. The more northern prairie hare (<spn>L. campestris</spn>) has the upper side of the tail white, and in winter its fur becomes nearly white.</cd> -- <col>Jack rafter</col> <fld>(Arch.)</fld>, <cd>in England, one of the shorter rafters used in constructing a hip or valley roof; in the United States, any secondary roof timber, as the common rafters resting on purlins in a trussed roof; also, one of the pieces simulating extended rafters, used under the eaves in some styles of building.</cd> -- <col>Jack salmon</col> <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld>, <cd>the wall-eyed pike, or glasseye.</cd> -- <col>Jack sauce</col>, <cd>an impudent fellow.</cd> [Colloq. & Obs.] -- <col>Jack shaft</col> <fld>(Mach.)</fld>, <cd>the first intermediate shaft, in a factory or mill, which receives power, through belts or gearing, from a prime mover, and transmits it, by the same means, to other intermediate shafts or to a line shaft.</cd> -- <col>Jack sinker</col> <fld>(Knitting Mach.)</fld>, <cd>a thin iron plate operated by the jack to depress the loop of thread between two needles.</cd> -- <col>Jack snipe</col>. <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld> <cd>See in the Vocabulary.</cd> -- <col>Jack staff</col> <fld>(Naut.)</fld>, <cd>a staff fixed on the bowsprit cap, upon which the jack is hoisted.</cd> -- <col>Jack timber</col> <fld>(Arch.)</fld>, <cd>any timber, as a rafter, rib, or studding, which, being intercepted, is shorter than the others.</cd> -- <col>Jack towel</col>, <cd>a towel hung on a roller for common use.</cd> -- <col>Jack truss</col> <fld>(Arch.)</fld>, <cd>in a hip roof, a minor truss used where the roof has not its full section.</cd> -- <col>Jack tree</col>. <fld>(Bot.)</fld> <cd>See 1st <er>Jack</er>, <tt>n.</tt></cd> -- <col>Jack yard</col> <fld>(Naut.)</fld>, <cd>a short spar to extend a topsail beyond the gaff.</cd></cs>

<cs><col>Blue jack</col>, <cd>blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.</cd> -- <col>Hydraulic jack</col>, <cd>a jack used for lifting, pulling, or forcing, consisting of a compact portable hydrostatic press, with its pump and a reservoir containing a supply of liquid, as oil.</cd> -- <col>Jack-at-a-pinch</col>. <sd>(a)</sd> <cd>One called upon to take the place of another in an emergency</cd>. <sd>(b)</sd> <cd>An itinerant parson who conducts an occasional service for a fee.</cd> -- <col>Jack-at-all-trades</col>, <cd>one who can turn his hand to any kind of work.</cd> -- <col>Jack-by-the-hedge</col> <fld>(Bot.)</fld>, <cd>a plant of the genus <spn>Erysimum</spn> (<spn>E. alliaria</spn>, or <spn>Alliaria officinalis</spn>), which grows under hedges. It bears a white flower and has a taste not unlike garlic. Called also, in England, <altname>sauce-alone</altname>. Eng. Cyc.</cd> -- <col>Jack-in-a-box</col>. <sd>(a)</sd> <fld>(Bot.)</fld> <cd>A tropical tree (<spn>Hernandia sonora</spn>), which bears a drupe that rattles when dry in the inflated calyx</cd>. <sd>(b)</sd> <cd>A child's toy, consisting of a box, out of which, when the lid is raised, a figure springs</cd>. <sd>(c)</sd> <fld>(Mech.)</fld> <cd>An epicyclic train of bevel gears for transmitting rotary motion to two parts in such a manner that their relative rotation may be variable; applied to driving the wheels of tricycles, road locomotives, and to cotton machinery, etc.; an equation box; a jack frame; -- called also <altname>compensating gearing</altname></cd>. <sd>(d)</sd> <cd>A large wooden screw turning in a nut attached to the crosspiece of a rude press.</cd> -- <col>Jack-in-office</col>, <cd>an insolent fellow in authority. Wolcott.</cd> -- <col>Jack-in-the-bush</col> <fld>(Bot.)</fld>, <cd>a tropical shrub with red fruit (<spn>Cordia Cylindrostachya</spn>).</cd> -- <col>Jack-in-the-green</col>, <cd>a chimney sweep inclosed in a framework of boughs, carried in Mayday processions.</cd> -- <col>Jack-in-the-pulpit</col> <fld>(Bot.)</fld>, <cd>the American plant <spn>Aris\'91ma triphyllum</spn>, or Indian turnip, in which the upright spadix is inclosed.</cd> -- <col>Jack-of-the-buttery</col> <fld>(Bot.)</fld>, <cd>the stonecrop (<spn>Sedum acre</spn>).</cd> -- <col>Jack-of-the-clock</col>, <cd>a figure, usually of a man, on old clocks, which struck the time on the bell.</cd> -- <col>Jack-on-both-sides</col>, <cd>one who is or tries to be neutral.</cd> -- <col>Jack-out-of-office</col>, <cd>one who has been in office and is turned out.</cd> Shak. -- <col>Jack the Giant Killer</col>, <cd>the hero of a well-known nursery story.</cd> -- <mcol><col>Jack-with-a-lantern</col>, <col>Jack-o'-lantern</col></mcol>. <sd>(a)</sd> <cd>An ignis fatuus; a will-o'-the-wisp</cd>. "[Newspaper speculations] supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns to the future historian." Lowell. <sd>(b)</sd> <cd>A lantern made of a pumpkin so prepared as to show in illumination the features of a human face, etc.</cd> -- <col>Yellow Jack</col> <fld>(Naut.)</fld>, <cd>the yellow fever; also, the quarantine flag. See <cref>Yellow flag</cref>, under <er>Flag</er>.</cd></cs>

<hw>Jack</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <ety>[F. <ets>jaque</ets>, <ets>jacque</ets>, perh. from the proper name <ets>Jacques</ets>. Cf. <er>Jacquerie</er>.]</ety> <def>A coarse and cheap medi\'91val coat of defense, esp. one made of leather.</def>

<blockquote>Their horsemen are with jacks for most part clad. Sir J. Harrington.</blockquote>

<hw>Jack</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <ety>[Named from its resemblance to a <ets>jack boot</ets>.]</ety> <def>A pitcher or can of waxed leather; -- called also <altname>black jack</altname>.</def> [Obs.]

Dryden.

<hw>Jack</hw>, <tt>v. i.</tt> <def>To hunt game at night by means of a jack. See 2d <er>Jack</er>, <tt>n.</tt>, 4, <tt>n.</tt></def>

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