Jack"-o'-lan`tern (?), n. See Jack-with-a-lantern, under 2d Jack.
Jack"pud`ding (?), n. A merry- andrew; a buffoon. Milton.
Jack"saw` (?), n. (Zoöl.) The merganser.
Jack"screw` (?), n. A jack in which a screw is used for lifting, or
exerting pressure. See Illust. of 2d Jack, n., 5.
Jack"slave` (?), n. A low servant; a mean fellow. Shak.
Jack"smith` (?), n. A smith who makes jacks. See 2d Jack, 4, c. Dryden.
Jack"snipe` (?), n. (Zoöl.) (a) A small European snipe (Limnocryptes
gallinula); -- called also judcock, jedcock, juddock, jed, and half
snipe. (b) A small American sandpiper (Tringa maculata); -- called also
pectoral sandpiper, and grass snipe.
Jack"stay` (?), n. (Naut.) A rail of wood or iron stretching along a
yard of a vessel, to which the sails are fastened.
Jack"stone` (?), n. (a) One of the pebbles or pieces used in the game
of jackstones. (b) (pl.) A game played with five small stones or pieces
of metal. See 6th Chuck.
Jack"straw` (?), n. 1. An effigy stuffed with straw; a scarecrow;
hence, a man without property or influence. Milton.
2. One of a set of straws of strips of ivory, bone, wood, etc., for
playing a child's game, the jackstraws being thrown confusedly together
on a table, to be gathered up singly by a hooked instrument, without
touching or disturbing the rest of the pile. See Spilikin.
Jack"wood` (?), n. Wood of the jack (Artocarpus integrifolia), used in
cabinetwork.
Ja"cob (?), n. [Cf. F. Jacob. See 2d Jack.] A Hebrew patriarch (son of
Isaac, and ancestor of the Jews), who in a vision saw a ladder reaching
up to heaven (Gen. xxviii. 12); -- also called Israel.
And Jacob said . . . with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and
now I am become two bands.
Gen. xxxii. 9, 10.
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.
Gen. xxxii. 28.
Jacob's ladder. (a) (Bot.) A perennial herb of the genus Polemonium (P.
cœruleum), having corymbs of drooping flowers, usually blue. Gray. (b)
(Naut.) A rope ladder, with wooden steps, for going aloft. R. H. Dana,
Jr. (c) (Naut.) A succession of short cracks in a defective spar. --
Jacob's membrane. See Retina. -- Jacob's staff. (a) A name given to
many forms of staff or weapon, especially in the Middle Ages; a
pilgrim's staff. [Obs.] Spenser. (b) (Surveying) See under Staff.
Jac`o*bæ"an lil"y (?). [See Jacobean.] (Bot.) A bulbous plant
(Amaryllis, or Sprekelia, formosissima) from Mexico. It bears a single,
large, deep, red, lilylike flower. [Written also Jacobean.]
{ Ja*co"be*an (?; 277), Ja*co"bi*an (?), } a. [From L. Jacobus James.
See 2d Jack.] Of or pertaining to a style of architecture and
decoration in the time of James the First, of England. "A Jacobean
table." C. L. Eastlake.