Jack-in-office, subs. (common).—An over-bearing petty official; an
upstart; a jack-in-the-pulpit (q.v.).
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Jack in an Office ... one that
behaves himself imperiously in it.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Jack-in-an-Office, an insolent
fellow in authority.
1894. St. James’s Gazette, 27 Aug. p. 13. Radical Governments and
their jacks-in-office seem to have a happy knack of making enemies.
Jack-in-the-cellar (or box), subs. (old).—A child in the womb; a
Hans-en-kelder (q.v.).
1765 Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, i. 65. When his companions drank
to Hans in Kelder, or Jack in the Low Cellar.
Jack-in-the-dust, subs. (nautical).—A steward’s mate.
Jack-in-the-green, subs. (common).—A chimney-sweep enclosed in a
portable framework of boughs for the processions on the first of May:
now mainly a thing of the past.
Jack-in-the-pulpit, subs. A pretender; an upstart; a Jack-in-office
(q.v.).
Jack-in-the-water, subs. (common).—An odd or handy man at a boat-house
or landing stage: also jack (q.v. sense 10).
Jack-of-all-trades, subs. (common).—One who can (or pretends to be able
to) turn his hand to any business: now usually in contempt, as
‘Jack-of-all-trades and master of none’.
c. 1633. Lady Alimony, iv. 2. What else, you Jack-of-all-trades?
c. 1636. London Chanticleers, Sc. ii. Any old pots or kettles to
mend? Will you buy my ballads? Or have you any corns on your
feet-toes? Nay, I am Jack-of-all-trades now.
1662. Rump Songs, i. 193. For where Sir John with
jack-of-all-trades joyns His finger’s thicker than the prelates’
loyns.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft, in Wks. (1725), p. 229. An then, thy
son, that hopeful piece, Apollo, Jack-of-all-trades is.
1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, III, 59. He is by his Profession a
Labourer to a Physician, but has made himself, by a curious
inspection into Mysteries of Universallity a jack of all Trades.
1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, 138. A jack-of-all-trades and
master of none was Panurgus Pebbles ... his shallow versatility was
his bane.
1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xxv. ‘I am my own engineer, and
my own carpenter, and my own plumber, and my own gardener, and my
own jack of all trades.’
Jack-of-legs, subs. (old).—1. An extra tall man; a lamp-post (q.v.).
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal. s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.