jack of plate(armor made up of small metal plates sewn between layers of cloth, similar to a brigandine)
jack of mail
padded jack
1591, John Harington, translating Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, x. 73 (quoted in e.g. 1822, Robert Nares, A Glossary, page 186):
Their horsemen are with jacks for most part clad, / Their horses are both swift of course and strong, / They run on horseback with a slender gad, / And like a speare, but that it is more long.
1766, Walter Harris, The history and antiquities of the city of Dublin:
threescore men in jacks or light coats of mail
1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 15:
The aketon, gambeson, vambasium, and jack were military vestments, calculated for the defence of the body, differing little from each other, except in their names, their materials and construction were nearly the same, the authorities quoted in the notes, shew they were all composed of many folds of linen, stuffed with cotton, wool or hair, quilted, and commonly covered with leather, made of buck or doe skin.
Call you me daughter? now I promiſe you / You haue ſhewd a tender fatherly regard, / To wiſh me wed to one halfe Lunaticke, / A mad-cap ruffian, and a ſwearing Iacke, / That thinkes with oathes to face the matter out.
1935, Bernard O'Donnell, The trials of Mr. Justice Avory, page 219:
When Wardell arrived on the scene, they were surprised to find that he was unshaven, and did not look too happy. One of them remarked: "The 'Jacks' (detectives) are after you."
2013, Nick Oldham, Big City Jacks:
'I'd like you to meet DCI Henry Christie,' FB was saying. The older of the two jacks reached forward and gave Henry's right paw a quick tug.
Our hero, among his other remarks, had obſerved, that in this place there was no ſuch utenſil as a jack, and that all the ſpits were turned by dogs, […]
Each of a series of blocks in a harpsichord or the earlier virginal, communicating the action of the key to the quill; sometime also, a hopper in a modern piano. [from 16th c.]
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap / To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, / Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap, / At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!
In the virginal, an upright piece of wood fixed to the key-lever and fitted with a quill which plucked the string as the jack rose when the key was pressed down. Here used as "key."
A device used to hold a boot by the heel, to assist in removing the boot. [from 17th c.]
A mechanical device used to raise and (temporarily) support a heavy object, now especially to lift one side of a motor vehicle when (e.g.) changing a tyre. [from 17th c.]
She used a jack to lift her car and changed the tire.
Any of various levers for raising or lowering the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles in a knitting machine or stocking frame. [from 18th c.]
(mining, now rare) A wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting. [from 19th c.]
(obsolete) A grating device used to separate and guide the threads in a warping machine; a heck-box. [19th c.]
(obsolete) A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves a carding machine, in the preparation of yarn. [19th–20th c.]
He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf—our crug—moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.
First off Regan carried fifteen grand, packed it in his clothes all the time. Real money, they tell me. Not just a top card and a bunch of hay. That's a lot of jack (or jack-shit) […].
Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack, and when you lose it, there's no attack. Where could you get money that you don't give back? Let's go on with the show
[A] quart of raisin jack was divided between us with the result that tha day proper (after the night before) was spent very quietly, watered and Bromo-Seltzered, with amusing anecdotes occasionally sprouting from towelled head to towelled head.
Sergeant Albrecht: Hey, c'mon, read the file! Shelly Webster, held on for 30 hours in intensive care and, her body finally just gave up. I saw it man, I couldn't do jack for her.
2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 72:
She didn't know what he was doing on the Darvish farm, or how long he'd been there, or how long he planned to stay. She didn't even know if it was his plane. In other words, jack, Mira thought, in a spike of furious resentment against herself.
1932, Isabel T. Kelly, “Ethnography of the Surprise Valley Paiute”, in University of California Publications in California Archaeology an Ethnography, volume 31, number 3, page 88:
Cottontails were taken along the creeks, under the willows. Their flesh was preferable to that of the jacks[…]"
2003 May 1, “Is that “Jack” in the Pulpit”, in Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History[2], archived from the original on 10 August 2025:
Usually a jack that makes male flowers has only one main leaf (right), while female plants have two. […] The specific taxonomy of Jack-in-the Pulpit, a member of the Arum Family (Araceae), is rather up in the air. Some botanists believe all jacks are just one species, Arisaema triphyllum, while others claim there are as many as three: A. triphyllum, A. atrorubens, and A. stewardsonii.
2013 May 5, “Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Jill”, in Eat the Weeds[3], archived from the original on 3 August 2023:
In fact, most male Jacks are under 14 inches tall. Most Jacks over 14 inches tend to be Jills.
2003 May 1, “Is that “Jack” in the Pulpit”, in Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History[4], archived from the original on 10 August 2025:
Lifting the flap at the top of the spathe reveals our slender and round-headed friend "Jack," known better to botanists as the spadix.
2017 May 24, Stephen Westcott-Gratton, “Purple pulpits and trilliums”, in Gardenmaking[5], archived from the original on 28 April 2025:
On every kid’s list of favourite plants is our quirky Jack-in-the-pulpit with its green, red or purple spadices (the Jacks) and hooded green-, red- or almost black-striped spathes (the pulpits).
If you want to jack your stats you just write off failures as invalid results.
To increase the potency of an alcoholic beverage similarly to distillation by chilling it to below the freezing point of water, removing the water ice crystals that form, and leaving the still-liquid alcoholic portion.
1941, Esquire, volume 15, numbers 1-3, page 176:
Fruit of the orchard has been "jacked" these many generations, with Plymouth Rockers putting the hard cider barrel down into the ground to freeze, and […]
2010, Scott Mansfield, Strong Waters: A Simple Guide to Making Beer, Wine, Cider ..., →ISBN:
The potency of a jacked beverage depends on the temperature applied to the original beverage; the colder the liquor, the more water can be frozen out […]. In New England, where this technique was historically used, people could get applejack to around 30 percent alcohol […].
1909, Edgur Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, page 437:
A mock living burial of the principal performer, who is placed in a pit, which is covered with planks, on the top of which a sacrifice is performed, with a fire kindled with jack wood (Artocarpus integrifolia) and a plant called erinna.
2001 October 8, Ray Dames, “Re: McGwire's Year”, in rec.sport.baseball[6] (Usenet):
The year before ('76) Kingman had 37 jacks with only 502 PAs. Is that the limit?
2002 April 18, Perry, “Re: To all you Oakland A's fans...”, in rec.sport.baseball[7] (Usenet):
Me three. I never have quite understood all the "three true outcomes" fetish around here. I mean, I know that building an offense around walks and 3-run jacks embodies the Sabermetric Virtues, and especially in today's conditions that's the way to win, but man, it sure leads to some slow, boring games.
2004 January 18, Terrell Miller, “Re: Does playing for the 3-run home run really help you win championships?”, in rec.sport.baseball[8] (Usenet):
3-run jacks are just another tool in a team's chest. The goal is to make the playoffs, then win at least one more game than your opponent each round. And repeat next year, and the year after that, and...
Verb
jack (third-person singular simple presentjacks, present participlejacking, simple past and past participlejacked)
1986, Arete: The Journal of Sport Literature[9], volume 4, Sport Literature Association:
An excellent piece of work, Wayne thought, so good in fact, he wasn’t surprised when Bailey walked to the plate and on the first pitch jacked the ball far into the parking lot outside the left-field fence for a tournament winning homerun.
2004, Wayne Stewart, Hitting Secrets of the Pros: Big League Sluggers Reveal the Tricks of Their Trade, McGraw-Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 90:
Therefore, even though Vizquel is certainly not a power hitter, at times he will try to jack the ball, perhaps pulling it with just enough oomph to carry down the line for a homer.
a. 2009, Jim McManus, quoted in T.J. Lewis, A View from the Mound: My Father’s Life in Baseball, Lulu.com (publisher, 2008), →ISBN, page 107:
Maybe he hung a curve ball to somebody and they jacked it out of the park on him and he wasn’t upset about it.
“jack”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
Gerd Carling (2005), “jack”, in Romani i svenskan: Storstadsslang och standardspråk, Stockholm: Carlsson, →ISBN, page 83
Kotsinas, Ulla-Britt (1988), “Ekensnack från Sibirien till Flempan. Om betydelseförändringar och orddöd i stockholmsslang”, in Ingemar Olsson 25 augusti 1988 (MINS 28) (in Swedish), Stockholm: Institutionen för nordiska språk, Stockholms universitet, pages 199-213
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