Library / English Dictionary

JACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Male donkey

Synonyms:

jack; jackass

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

ass (hardy and sure-footed animal smaller and with longer ears than the horse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of several fast-swimming predacious fishes of tropical to warm temperate seas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

carangid; carangid fish (a percoid fish of the family Carangidae)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

Caranx hippos; crevalle jack; jack crevalle; Caranx bartholomaei; yellow jack (fish of western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico)

blue runner; Caranx crysos; runner (fish of western Atlantic: Cape Cod to Brazil)

Elagatis bipinnulata; rainbow runner (streamlined cigar-shaped jack; good game fish)

leatherjack; leatherjacket (any of several New World tropical fishes having tiny embedded scales)

Alectis ciliaris; thread-fish; threadfish (fish having greatly elongated front rays on dorsal and anal fins)

amberfish; amberjack (any of several amber to coppery fork-tailed warm-water carangid fishes)

Seriola dorsalis; yellowtail (game fish of southern California and Mexico having a yellow tail fin)

banded rudderfish; rudderfish; Seriola zonata (fish having the habit of following ships; found in North American and South American coastal waters)

kingfish; Seriola grandis (large game fish of Australia and New Zealand)

Holonyms ("jack" is a member of...):

Carangidae; family Carangidae (large family of narrow-bodied marine food fishes with widely forked tails; chiefly of warm seas)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Tool for exerting pressure or lifting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

tool (an implement used in the practice of a vocation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

bumper jack (a jack for lifting a motor vehicle by the bumper)

jackscrew; screw jack (screw-operated jack)

Derivation:

jack (lift with a special device)

Sense 4

Meaning:

One of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince

Synonyms:

jack; knave

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

court card; face card; picture card (one of the twelve cards in a deck bearing a picture of a face)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Small flag indicating a ship's nationality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

flag (emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design)

Sense 6

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

jack; jackstones

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

game equipment (equipment or apparatus used in playing a game)

Sense 7

Meaning:

An electrical device consisting of a connector socket designed for the insertion of a plug

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

electrical device (a device that produces or is powered by electricity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

phone jack; telephone jack (a jack for plugging in a telephone)

Sense 8

Meaning:

A small ball at which players aim in lawn bowling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

ball (round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games)

Holonyms ("jack" is a part of...):

bowls; lawn bowling (a bowling game played on a level lawn with biased wooden balls that are rolled at a jack)

Sense 9

Meaning:

Immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit; it contains an edible pulp and nutritious seeds that are commonly roasted

Synonyms:

jack; jackfruit; jak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

edible fruit (edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh)

Holonyms ("jack" is a part of...):

Artocarpus heterophyllus; jackfruit; jackfruit tree (East Indian tree cultivated for its immense edible fruit and seeds)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor

Synonyms:

jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

working man; working person; workingman; workman (an employee who performs manual or industrial labor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

yardman (a laborer hired to do outdoor work (such as mowing lawns))

wrecker (someone who demolishes or dismantles buildings as a job)

woodcutter (cuts down trees and chops wood as a job)

fireman; stoker (a laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship))

dock-walloper; dock worker; docker; dockhand; dockworker; loader; longshoreman; lumper; stevedore (a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port)

steeplejack (someone who builds or maintains very tall structures)

stacker (a laborer who builds up a stack or pile)

sprayer (a worker who applies spray to a surface)

section hand (a laborer assigned to a section gang)

sawyer (one who is employed to saw wood)

rail-splitter; splitter (a laborer who splits logs to build split-rail fences)

porter (a person employed to carry luggage and supplies)

platelayer; tracklayer (a workman who lays and repairs railroad tracks)

mule driver; mule skinner; muleteer; skinner (a worker who drives mules)

agricultural laborer; agricultural labourer (a person who tills the soil for a living)

bracero (a Mexican laborer who worked in the United States on farms and railroads in order to ease labor shortages during World War II)

cleaner (someone whose occupation is cleaning)

day laborer; day labourer (a laborer who works by the day; for daily wages)

digger (a laborer who digs)

dishwasher (someone who washes dishes)

drudge; galley slave; navvy; peon (a laborer who is obliged to do menial work)

gandy dancer (a laborer in a railroad maintenance gang)

gravedigger (a person who earns a living by digging graves)

hewer (a person who hews)

hand; hired hand; hired man (a hired laborer on a farm or ranch)

hod carrier; hodman (a laborer who carries supplies to masons or bricklayers)

gipsy; gypsy; itinerant (a laborer who moves from place to place as demanded by employment)

faller; feller; logger; lumberjack; lumberman (a person who fells trees)

miner; mineworker (laborer who works in a mine)

Sense 11

Meaning:

A man who serves as a sailor

Synonyms:

gob; Jack; Jack-tar; mariner; old salt; sea dog; seafarer; seaman; tar

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Jack" is a kind of...):

crewman; sailor (any member of a ship's crew)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Jack"):

whaler (a seaman who works on a ship that hunts whales)

sea lawyer (an argumentative and contentious seaman)

pilot (a person qualified to guide ships through difficult waters going into or out of a harbor)

officer; ship's officer (a person authorized to serve in a position of authority on a vessel)

bargee; bargeman; lighterman (someone who operates a barge)

helmsman; steerer; steersman (the person who steers a ship)

deckhand; roustabout (a member of a ship's crew who performs manual labor)

bo's'n; bo'sun; boatswain; bos'n; bosun (a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen)

able-bodied seaman; able seaman (a seaman in the merchant marine; trained in special skills)

Sense 12

Meaning:

A small worthless amount

Example:

you don't know jack

Synonyms:

diddley; diddly; diddly-shit; diddly-squat; diddlyshit; diddlysquat; doodly-squat; jack; shit; squat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hunt with a jacklight

Synonyms:

jack; jacklight

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "jack" is one way to...):

hunt; hunt down; run; track down (pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lift with a special device

Example:

jack up the car so you can change the tire

Synonyms:

jack; jack up

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "jack" is one way to...):

bring up; elevate; get up; lift; raise (raise from a lower to a higher position)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

jack (tool for exerting pressure or lifting)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Well, so was Jack James an American citizen, but he’s doing time in Portland all the same.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That was splendid too; that is, the orchestra was, though I'd have enjoyed it more if those jumping-jacks had kept quiet or gone off the stage.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I saw after Jack Ballinger myself this mornin'.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We shall call her Daisey, so as not to have two Megs, and I suppose the mannie will be Jack, unless we find a better name, said Amy, with aunt-like interest.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The Parson Russell was formally known as the Jack Russell Terrier.

(Jack Russell Terrier, NCI Thesaurus)

I’ll wager every man Jack of them is over the side to-morrow, hunting for Wolf Larsen as contentedly as ever they hunted for Death Larsen.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Jack Wilson, a post-doctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, led a team that reprocessed data collected from 2002 to 2009 by the neutron spectrometer instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

(A Fresh Look at Older Data Yields a Surprise Near the Martian Equator, NASA)

Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to sleep; the jack stopped, and the spit that was turning about with a goose upon it for the king’s dinner stood still; and the cook, who was at that moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep; the butler, who was slyly tasting the ale, fell asleep with the jug at his lips: and thus everything stood still, and slept soundly.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

If your biologic age is younger than your chronologic age, you may have decreased risk of developing breast cancer, said corresponding author Jack Taylor, M.D., Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology Group.

(Older biologic age linked to elevated breast cancer risk, National Institutes of Health)