1653. Brome, Mad Couple well matched [in Five Newe Playes], p. 13.
I charge you meddle not with my wife: you have had two or three
jerks at her.
4. (old).—A stripe; a lash with a whip. Hence jerking (or yerking),
adj. = lashing; stinging; jerk, verb. = to lash; and to cly the jerk
(Old Cant) = to be whipped at the post.
1557–8. Jacob and Esau [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii. 194]. Come
on, ye must have three jerks for the nonce.
1597. Hall, Satires, ii. 6. He must ask his mother to define, How
many jerkes she would his breech should line.
1598. Marston, Satyres, iii. Ne’er yerking him with my satyric
whip.
1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight (Grosart, Wks.), iii. 203.
If we heave a Booth we straight cly the jerk.
1653. Brome, The Damoiselle, in Wks. (1872), ii. 448. I’ faith she
jerked that humour out of me.