To lay on the jack, verb. phr. (old).—To thrash soundly; to scold in
good round terms. For synonyms see Baste and Tan.
1557–8. Jacob & Esau [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii., 253]. If I
wrought one stroke to-day, lay me on the jack.
1579. North, Noble Grecians, p. 127. And that they should make no
reckoning of all that bravery and bragges, but should stick to it
like men, and lay it on the jacks of them.
To make one’s jack, verb. phr. (American).—To succeed; to gain one’s
point. [From the game of faro].
To be coppered on the jack, verb. phr. (American).—To fail; to lose
one’s point. [From the game of faro].
1878. J. H. Beadle, Western Wilds, 46. He ... staked a pile of
‘chips’ and won; then made and lost, and made and lost alternately,
selling his stock, when ‘broke’, and scarcely ate or drank till the
tail of his last mule was coppered on the jack.
To play the jack, verb. phr. (old).—To play the rogue.
1609. Shakspeare, Tempest, iv. 1. Your fairy ... has done little
better than play the jack with us.
1612. Rowlands, Knave of Hearts, p. 20. [Hunterian Club Rept.]. Boy
y’are a villaine, didst thou fill this Sacke? Tis flat, you
Rascall, thou hast plaid the jacke.
1668. Pepys, Diary, Feb. 23. Who played the jacke with us all, and
is a fellow that I must trust no more.
To be upon their jacks, verb. phr. (old).—To have an advantage.
To get jack in the orchard, verb. phr. (venery).—To achieve
intromission. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.
Every man jack (or every jack-rag), phr. (common).—Every one without
exception.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, vi, vi. There is none: my missus says that
not a man john of them is to be seen.
1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, viii. Sir Pitt had numbered every man
jack of them.
1852. C. Reade, Peg Woffington, viii. Send them (the children) to
bed; every man jack of them.
1861. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, iv, i. I knows every man
jack of ’em, sir; and a fine staff they is.
1892. Anstey, Voces Populi, ‘Free Speech’, p. 103. Traitors, hevery
man jack of ’em.
Jack-at-a-Pinch, subs. (old).—A person employed in an emergency; a
stop-gap: specially, a clergyman who has no cure, but on occasion
officiates for a fee: cf. guinea-pig.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1883. Whitcher, Widow Bedott Papers, p. 27. The fact is, Miss Coon
feels wonderfully cut up, because she knows that her husband took
her jack-at-a-pinch.
Jack-in-a(or -the)-box, subs. (old).—1. See quots.
1632. Dekker, English Villanies, [quoted by Nares]. This
jacke-in-a-boxe, or this divell in mans shape, wearing (like a
player on a stage) good cloathes on his backe, comes to a
goldsmiths stall, to a drapers, a habberdashers, or into any other
shoppe, where he knowes good store of silver faces are to be seene.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Jack-in-a-box, c. a Sharper or
Cheat.
1725. New Cant. Dict. s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal. s.v.
2. (old).—A child’s toy, consisting of a box out of which, on raising
the lid, a figure springs.
1570. Satirical Poems of Reformation [S.T.S.], 1889–90, I, p. 163,
l. 78. Jak-in-the-bokkis, for all thy mokkis.
1600. Nashe, Works [Grosart, 1885, vi. 149]. Close under a hedge,
or under a house wall, playing jack-in-a-box.
1702. The Infernal Wanderer [quoted by nares]. As I was thus
walking my rounds, up comes a brother of the quill, belonging to
the office, who no sooner made his entrance amongst the equitable
fraternity, but up started every one in his seat, like a jack in a
box, crying out Legit aut non Legit; To which they answer’d
themselves, Non legit, my lord.
1878. Grenville Murray, Round about France, p. 268. With the
suddenness of a jack-in-the-box.
3. (common).—A game in which some article, of more or less value, is
placed on the top of a stick standing in a hole, and thrown at with
sticks. If the article be hit so as to fall clear of the hole, the
thrower takes it.
4. (thieves’).—A small but powerful kind of screw, used by burglars to
open safes.
1848. Albert Smith, Christopher Tadpole, ch. xiii. Take care of the
jack-in-the-box: there never was but two made.