Jack-at-all-trades

Jack Jack (j[a^]k), n. [F. Jacques James, L. Jacobus, Gr. ?, Heb. Ya 'aq[=o]b Jacob; prop., seizing by the heel; hence, a supplanter. Cf. {Jacobite}, {Jockey}.] [1913 Webster] 1. A familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John. [1913 Webster]

You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

2. An impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a clown; also, a servant; a rustic. ``Jack fool.'' --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]

Since every Jack became a gentleman, There 's many a gentle person made a Jack. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

3. A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also {Jack tar}, and {Jack afloat}. [1913 Webster]

4. 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; as: (a) A device to pull off boots. (b) A sawhorse or sawbuck. (c) A machine or contrivance for turning a spit; a smoke jack, or kitchen jack. (b) (Mining) A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting. (e) (Knitting Machine) A lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles. (f) (Warping Machine) A grating to separate and guide the threads; a heck box. (g) (Spinning) A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine. (h) A compact, portable machine for planing metal. (i) A machine for slicking or pebbling leather. (k) A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed. (l) A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught. (m) In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; -- called also {hopper}. (n) In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself. --C. Hallock. [1913 Webster]

5. A portable machine variously constructed, for exerting great pressure, or lifting or moving a heavy body such as an automobile 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. [1913 Webster]

6. The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon it. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]

7. The male of certain animals, as of the ass. [1913 Webster]

8. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A young pike; a pickerel. (b) The jurel. (c) A large, California rock fish ({Sebastodes paucispinus}); -- called also {boccaccio}, and {m['e]rou}. (d) The wall-eyed pike. [1913 Webster]

9. A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding a quarter of a pint. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell. [1913 Webster]

10. (Naut.) (a) A flag, containing only the union, without the fly, usually hoisted on a jack staff at the bowsprit cap; -- called also {union jack}. The American jack is a small blue flag, with a star for each State. (b) A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead, to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal shrouds; -- called also {jack crosstree}. --R. H. Dana, Jr. [1913 Webster]

11. The knave of a suit of playing cards.

12. (pl.) 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. same as {jackstones}. [PJC]

13. Money. [slang] [PJC]

14. Apple jack. [PJC]

15. Brandy. [PJC]

Note: 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. [1913 Webster]

{Jack arch}, an arch of the thickness of one brick.

{Jack back} (Brewing & Malt Vinegar Manuf.), a cistern which receives the wort. See under 1st {Back}.

{Jack block} (Naut.), a block fixed in the topgallant or royal rigging, used for raising and lowering light masts and spars.

{Jack boots}, boots reaching above the knee; -- worn in the 17 century by soldiers; afterwards by fishermen, etc.

{Jack crosstree}. (Naut.) See 10, b, above.

{Jack curlew} (Zo["o]l.), the whimbrel.

{Jack frame}. (Cotton Spinning) See 4 (g), above.

{Jack Frost}, frost or cold weather personified as a mischievous person.

{Jack hare}, a male hare. --Cowper.

{Jack lamp}, a lamp for still hunting and camp use. See def. 4 (n.), above.

{Jack plane}, a joiner's plane used for coarse work.

{Jack post}, one of the posts which support the crank shaft of a deep-well-boring apparatus.

{Jack pot} (Poker Playing), 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. See also {jackpot}.

{Jack rabbit} (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of large American hares, having very large ears and long legs. The California species ({Lepus Californicus}), and that of Texas and New Mexico ({Lepus callotis}), have the tail black above, and the ears black at the tip. They do not become white in winter. The more northern prairie hare ({Lepus campestris}) has the upper side of the tail white, and in winter its fur becomes nearly white.

{Jack rafter} (Arch.), 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.

{Jack salmon} (Zo["o]l.), the wall-eyed pike, or glasseye.

{Jack sauce}, an impudent fellow. [Colloq. & Obs.]

{Jack shaft} (Mach.), 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.

{Jack sinker} (Knitting Mach.), a thin iron plate operated by the jack to depress the loop of thread between two needles.

{Jack snipe}. (Zo["o]l.) See in the Vocabulary.

{Jack staff} (Naut.), a staff fixed on the bowsprit cap, upon which the jack is hoisted.

{Jack timber} (Arch.), any timber, as a rafter, rib, or studding, which, being intercepted, is shorter than the others.

{Jack towel}, a towel hung on a roller for common use.

{Jack truss} (Arch.), in a hip roof, a minor truss used where the roof has not its full section.

{Jack tree}. (Bot.) See 1st {Jack}, n.

{Jack yard} (Naut.), a short spar to extend a topsail beyond the gaff. [1913 Webster]

{Blue jack}, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.

{Hydraulic jack}, 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.

{Jack-at-a-pinch}. (a) One called upon to take the place of another in an emergency. (b) An itinerant parson who conducts an occasional service for a fee.

{Jack-at-all-trades}, one who can turn his hand to any kind of work.

{Jack-by-the-hedge} (Bot.), a plant of the genus {Erysimum} ({Erysimum alliaria}, or {Alliaria officinalis}), which grows under hedges. It bears a white flower and has a taste not unlike garlic. Called also, in England, {sauce-alone}. --Eng. Cyc.

{Jack-in-office}, an insolent fellow in authority. --Wolcott.

{Jack-in-the-bush} (Bot.), a tropical shrub with red fruit ({Cordia Cylindrostachya}).

{Jack-in-the-green}, a chimney sweep inclosed in a framework of boughs, carried in Mayday processions.

{Jack-of-the-buttery} (Bot.), the stonecrop ({Sedum acre}).

{Jack-of-the-clock}, a figure, usually of a man, on old clocks, which struck the time on the bell.

{Jack-on-both-sides}, one who is or tries to be neutral.

{Jack-out-of-office}, one who has been in office and is turned out. --Shak.

{Jack the Giant Killer}, the hero of a well-known nursery story.

{Yellow Jack} (Naut.), the yellow fever; also, the quarantine flag. See {Yellow flag}, under {Flag}. [1913 Webster]