Jack
.I. Applied to men, but always depreciatingly. (See Tom.)
(2) Jack-a-dandy (q.v.).
(3) Jack-a-dreams. A man of inaction, a mere dreamer.
(5) Jack-a-Lent. A half-starved, sheepish booby. Shakespeare says: “You little Jack-a-lent, have you been true to us?” (Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 3.)
A kind of Aunt Sally which was thrown at in Lent. (See Cleveland’s Poems [1660], p. 64.)
(6) Jack-a-napes (q.v.).
(7) Jack-at-a-pinch. One who lends a hand in an emergency; an itinerant clergyman who has no cure, but officiates for a fee in any church where his assistance is required.
(10) Jack Ketch (q.v.).
(11) Jack-pudding (q.v.).
(12) Jack-sauce. An insolent sauce-box, “the worst Jack of the pack.” Fluellen says one who challenges another and refuses to fight is a “Jack-sauce.” (Henry V., iv. 7.)
(13) Jack-snip. A botching tailor.
(14) Jack-slave. “Every Jack-slave hath his belly full of fighting.” (Shakespeare: Cymbeline, ii. 1.)
(15) Jack-sprat (q.v.).
(16) Jack-straw. A peasant rebel.
(18) Jack-in-office. A conceited official, or upstart, who presumes on his official appointment to give himself airs.
(20) Jack-in-the-water. An attendant at the waterman’s stairs, etc., willing to wet his feet, if needs be, for a “few coppers.”
(22) Jack-of-both-sides. One who tries to favour two antagonistic parties, either from fear or for profit.
(23) Jack-out-of-office. “But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office.” (Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., i. 1.).
(24) Cheap Jack. (See Cheap.)
(26) Every man-Jack of them. All without exception, even the most insignificant.
(27) Remember poor Jack. Throw a copper to the boys paddling about the jetty or pier, or performing tricks under the hope of getting a small bounty.
II. Applied to boys who act the part of men.
(2) Jack Sprat. Who bears the same relation to a man as a sprat does to a mackerel or herring.
(3) Jack and Jill (nursery rhyme). Jill or Gill is a contraction of Julienne or Gillian, a common Norman name. (See Jack, VII.)
(4) Jack and the Bean-stalk (q.v.).
(7) Jack the Giant-killer (q.v.).
(9) Little Jack Horner. (See Jack Horner.)
(10) The house that Jack built (nursery tale).
III. Applied to the males or inferior animals: as—
Jack-ass, Jack-baker (a kind of owl), Jack or dog fox, Jack-hare, Jack-hern, Jack-rat, Jack-shark, Jack-snipe; a young pike is called a Jack, so also were the male birds used in falconry.
IV. Applied to instruments which supply the place of or represent inferior men or boys:—
(2) A jack. Used for lifting heavy weights.
“Strike like Jack oʹ the clock-house, never but in season.”—Strode: Floating Island.
(5) Jack-in-the-basket. The cap or basket on the top of a pole to indicate the place of a sandbank at sea, etc.
(6) Jack-in-the-box. A toy consisting of a box out of which, when the lid is raised, a figure springs.
(10) Roasting-jack. (See Bottle-jack, 8.)
(11) Smoke-jack. An apparatus in a chimney-flue for turning a spit. It is made to revolve by the upward current of smoke and air.
V. Applied to inferior articles which bear the same relation to the thing imitated as Jack does to a gentleman.
(1) Jack. A rough stool or wooden horse for sawing timber on.
“Body of me, I am dry still; give me the jack, boy.”—Beaumont and Fletcher: Bloody Brother, ii. 2.
(3) Jack. Inferior kind of armour. (See Jack, No. VIII.)
(4) A Jack and a half-jack. Counters resembling a sovereign and a half-sovereign. Used at gaming-tables to make up a show of wealth.
(6) Jack-boots. Cumbrous boots of tough, thick leather worn by fishermen. Jacks or armour for the legs.
(8) Jack-plane. A menial plane to do the rough work for finer instruments.
(9) Jack-rafter. A rafter in a hipped roof, shorter than a full-sized one.
(10) Jack-rib. An inferior rib in an arch, being shorter than the rest.
(12) Jack-timbers. Timbers in a building shorter than the rest.
(13) Jack-towel. A coarse, long towel hung on a roller, for the servantsʹ use.
(14) Jack of Dover (q.v.).
(16) Black jack. A huge drinking vessel. A Frenchman speaking of it says, “The English drink out of their boots.” (Heywood.)
VI. A Term Of Contempt.
(1) Jack-a-lantern or Jack-oʹ-lantern, the fool fire (ignis fatuus).
(4) Jack-daw. A prating nuisance.
(6) Jackey. A monkey.
(7) Skip-jack. A toy, an upstart.
(8) The black jack. The turnip-fly.
(9) The yellow jack. The yellow fever.
VII. Used in proverbial phrases.
¶ A good Jack makes a good Jill. A good husband makes a good wife, a good master makes a good servant. Jack, a generic name for man, husband, or master; and Gill or Jill, his wife or female servant.
Every Jack shall have his Jill. Every man may find a wife if he likes; or rather, every country rustic shall find a lass to be his mate.
“Jack shall have his Jill,
Nought shall go ill;
To play the Jack. To play the rogue or knave; to deceive or lead astray like Jack-oʹ-lantern, or ignis fatuus.
“——your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the Jack with us.”—Shakespeare: Tempest, iv. 1.
