[Some combinations are: To jerk the cat = to vomit; to jerk the tinkler
= to ring the bell; to jerk one’s juice or jelly (also to jerk off) =
to masturbate; to jerk chinmusic = to talk; to jerk a poem, article or
book = to write; to jerk a gybe = to counterfeit a license; jerked, or
jerked to Jesus (American) = hanged; in a jerk = instantly; Dr. Jerk =
flogging schoolmaster.]
1622. Head & Kirkman, English Rogue. A Jybe well jerked.
1651. On Dr. Gill, Master of St. Paul’s School. In Paul’s
Churchyard in London, There dwells a noble Ferker. Take heed, you
that passe, Lest you taste of his Lash, For I have found him a
jerker.
1752. Foote, Taste (1781). The child has been two years and three
quarters at school with Dr. Jerk near Doncaster.
1755. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Jerk. To strike up; to accost
eagerly ... is mere cant.
1772. G. A. Stevens, Songs Comic and Satyrical, 161. Put wine into
wounds You’ll be cured in a jerk.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist. Jerk the tinkler.... These words in
plain English conveyed an injunction to ring the bell.
1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, p. 332. The thing
I’m now on is to roust out somebody to jerk a little chin-music for
us.
Jerker, subs. (common).—1. A tippler. For synonyms see Lushington.