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jerk

Pronunciation: /ˈd͡ʒɜːk/

The English word “jerk” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A sudden, often uncontrolled movement, especially of the human body.
  2. A quick pull on something.
  3. A person with unlikable or obnoxious qualities and behavior, typically mean, immoral, self-centered, or disagreeable.
  4. A stupid person; an idiot or fool.
  5. A lift in which the weight is taken with a quick motion from shoulder height to a position above the head with arms fully extended and held there for a brief time.
  6. Masturbation.
  7. An act of satirizing behavior that is, to an extent, common in a community, especially in circlejerk subreddits.
  8. A dance, popular in Western culture in the 1960s, in which the head and upper body is thrown forwards regularly to the beat of the music.
  9. The rate of change in acceleration with respect to time.
  10. A rich, spicy Jamaican marinade.
  11. Meat (or sometimes vegetables) cured by jerking, in which it is coated in spices and slow-cooked over a fire or grill traditionally composed of green pimento wood positioned over burning coals; charqui.

verb

  1. To make a sudden uncontrolled movement.
  2. To give a quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
  3. To masturbate.
  4. To satirize behavior that is, to an extent, common in a community, especially in circlejerk subreddits.
  5. To beat, to hit.
  6. To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.
  7. To lift using a jerk.
  8. To flout with contempt.
  9. To cure (meat) by cutting it into strips and drying it, originally in the sun.

Etymology

Probably from Middle English yerk (“sudden motion”) and Middle English yerkid (“tightly pulled”), from Old English ġearc (“ready, active, quick”) and Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”). Cognate with Scots yerk (“to jerk”). Related also to English yare (“ready”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.