Jig

Pronunciation

• enPR: jÄ­g; IPA: /d͡ʒɪɡ/
• Rhymes: -ɪɡ

Origin

An assimilated form of earlier gig, from Middle English gigge, from Old French gige, gigue ("a fiddle, kind of dance"), from Frankish *gīge ("dance, fiddle"), from Proto-Germanic *gīganą ("to move, wish, desire"), from Proto-Indo-European *gheiǵh-, *gheigh- ("to yawn, gape, long for, desire"). Cognate with Middle Dutch ghighe ("fiddle"), German Geige ("fiddle, violin"), Danish gige ("fiddle"), Icelandic gigja ("fiddle"). More at gig, geg.

Full definition of jig

Noun

1. (music) A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
2. (traditional Irish music and dance) A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.they danced a jig
• 2012, Tom Lamont, How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world (in The Daily Telegraph, 15 November 2012)http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/15/mumford-sons-biggest-band-worldSoon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.
3. (traditional English Morris dancing) A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
4. (fishing) A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
5. A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.
6. (mining) An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
7. (obsolete) A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
• unknown date Beaumont and FletcherA jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme
  Praised and applauded.
8. (obsolete) A trick; a prank.
• unknown date Beaumont and FletcherIs't not a fine jig,
  A precious cunning, in the late Protector?

Derived terms

• the jig is up
• dance the hempen jig

Verb

1. To move briskly, especially as a dance.The guests were jigging around on the dancefloor
2. (fishing) To fish with a jig.
3. To sing to the tune of a jig.
• ShakespeareJig off a tune at the tongue's end.
4. To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.
5. (mining) To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
6. To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.