from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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}.]
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1. A familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John.
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You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. --Shak.
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2. An impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a
clown; also, a servant; a rustic. "Jack fool." --Chaucer.
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Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There 's many a gentle person made a Jack. --Shak.
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3. A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also
{Jack tar}, and {Jack afloat}.
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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.
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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.
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6. The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls.
--Shak.
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Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the
jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon
it. --Sir W.
Scott.
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7. The male of certain animals, as of the ass.
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8. (Zool.)
(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.
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9. A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding
a quarter of a pint. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.
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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.
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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}.
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13. Money. [slang]
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14. Apple jack.
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15. Brandy.
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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.
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{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} (Zool.), 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} (Zool.), 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} (Zool.), 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}. (Zool.) 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.
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{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}.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Union \Un"ion\ (?; 277), n. [F., from L. unio oneness, union, a
single large pearl, a kind of onion, fr. unus one. See {One},
and cf. {Onion}, {Unit}.]
1. The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one,
or the state of being united or joined; junction;
coalition; combination.
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Note: Union differs from connection, as it implies that the
bodies are in contact, without an inter?ening body;
whereas things may be connected by the in???vention of
a third body, as by a cord or chain.
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2. Agreement and conjunction of mind, spirit, will,
affections, or the like; harmony; concord.
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3. That which is united, or made one; something formed by a
combination or coalition of parts or members; a
confederation; a consolidated body; a league; as, the
weavers have formed a union; trades unions have become
very numerous; the United States of America are often
called the Union. --A. Hamilton.
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4. A textile fabric composed of two or more materials, as
cotton, silk, wool, etc., woven together.
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5. A large, fine pearl. [Obs.]
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If they [pearls] be white, great, round, smooth, and
weighty . . . our dainties and delicates here at
Rome . . . call them unions, as a man would say
"singular," and by themselves alone. --Holland.
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In the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings
In Denmark's crown have worn. --Shak.
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6. A device emblematic of union, used on a national flag or
ensign, sometimes, as in the military standard of Great
Britain, covering the whole field; sometimes, as in the
flag of the United States, and the English naval and
marine flag, occupying the upper inner corner, the rest of
the flag being called the fly. Also, a flag having such a
device; especially, the flag of Great Britain.
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Note: The union of the United States ensign is a cluster of
white stars, denoting the union of the States, and,
properly, equal in number to that of the States,
displayed on a blue field; the fly being composed of
alternate stripes of red and white. The union of the
British ensign is the three crosses of St. George, St.
Andrew, and St. Patrick in combination, denoting the
union of England, Scotland and Ireland, displayed on a
blue field in the national banner used on shore, on a
red, white, or blue field in naval ensigns, and with a
white border or fly in the merchant service.
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7. (Mach.) A joint or other connection uniting parts of
machinery, or the like, as the elastic pipe of a tender
connecting it with the feed pipe of a locomotive engine;
especially, a pipe fitting for connecting pipes, or pipes
and fittings, in such a way as to facilitate
disconnection.
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8. (Brewing) A cask suspended on trunnions, in which
fermentation is carried on.
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{Hypostatic union} (Theol.) See under {Hypostatic}.
{Latin union}. See under {Latin}.
{Legislative Union} (Eng. Hist.), the union of Great Britain
and Ireland, which took place Jan. 1, 1801.
{Union}, or {Act of Union} (Eng. Hist.), the act by which
Scotland was united to England, or by which the two
kingdoms were incorporated into one, in 1707.
{Union by the first intention}, or {Union by the second
intention}. (Surg.) See {To heal by the first intention}, or
{To heal by the second intention}, under {Intention}.
{Union down} (Naut.), a signal of distress at sea made by
reversing the flag, or turning its union downward.
{Union jack}. (Naut.) See {Jack}, n., 10.
{Union joint}. (Mech.)
(a) A joint formed by means of a union.
(b) A piece of pipe made in the form of the letter T.
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Syn: Unity; junction; connection; concord; alliance;
coalition; combination; confederacy.
Usage: {Union}, {Unity}. Union is the act of bringing two or
more things together so as to make but one, or the
state of being united into one. Unity is a state of
simple oneness, either of essence, as the unity of
God, or of action, feeling, etc., as unity of design,
of affection, etc. Thus, we may speak of effecting a
union of interests which shall result in a unity of
labor and interest in securing a given object.
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One kingdom, joy, and union without end.
--Milton.
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[Man] is to . . . beget
Like of his like, his image multiplied.
In unity defective; which requires
Collateral love, and dearest amity. --Milton.
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