Jerk

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dʒɜːk/
• US IPA: /dʒɝk/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

Probably from Middle English yerk ("sudden motion"), from Old English Ä¡earc ("ready, active, quick"). Compare Old English Ä¡earcian ("to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply"). Related to yare.

Alternative forms

• yark

Full definition of jerk

Noun

1. A sudden, often uncontrolled movement, especially of the body.
• 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-AvelingThe black cloth bestrewn with white beads blew up from time to time, laying bare the coffin. The tired bearers walked more slowly, and it advanced with constant jerks, like a boat that pitches with every wave.
2. A quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.When I yell "OK," give the mooring line a good jerk!
3. (US, slang, pejorative) A dull or stupid person.
4. (US, slang, pejorative) A person with unlikable or obnoxious qualities and behavior, typically mean, self-centered, or disagreeable.I finally fired him, because he was being a real jerk to his customers, even to some of the staff.You really are a jerk sometimes.
5. (physics, engineering) The rate of change in acceleration with respect to time.
6. (obsolete) A soda jerk.
7. (weightlifting) A lift in which the weight is taken with a quick motion from shoulder height to a position above the head with arms fully extended and held there for a brief time.

Usage notes

Jerk is measured in metres per second cubed (m/s

3

) in SI units, or in feet per second cubed (ft/s

3

) in imperial units.

Synonyms

• (sudden movement) jolt, lurch, jump
• (quick tug) yank
• (stupid person) numbskull
• (unlikable person) asshole, bastard, twat, knobhead, tosser, wanker, git, dick.
• (physics, change in acceleration) jolt British, surge, lurch

Derived terms

• jerkish
• soda jerk

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden uncontrolled movement.
• 1877, Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Chapter 23http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/23York came to me first, whilst the groom stood at Ginger's head. He drew my head back and fixed the rein so tight that it was almost intolerable; then he went to Ginger, who was impatiently jerking her head up and down against the bit, as was her way now.
2. (transitive) To give a quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
3. (US, slang, vulgar) To masturbate.
4. (obsolete) To beat, to hit.
5. (obsolete) To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.to jerk a stone
6. (usually transitive, weightlifting) To lift using a jerk.
7. (obsolete) To flout with contempt.

Derived terms

• jerk off
• jerksome

From American Spanish charquear, from charqui, from echarqui ("strips of dried flesh").

Noun

1. (Caribbean) A rich, spicy Jamaican marinade
2. (Caribbean) Meat cured by jerking; charqui.Jerk chicken is a local favorite.

Related terms

• jerky (noun)

Verb

1. To cure (meat) by cutting it into strips and drying it, originally in the sun.
• 2011, Dominic Smith, Bright and Distant Shores, page 106:The Lemakot in the north strangled widows and threw them into the cremation pyres of their dead husbands. If they defeated potential invaders the New Irish hanged the vanquished from banyan trees, flensed their windpipes, removed their heads, left their intestines to jerk in the sun.