jerk: Meaning and Definition of
jerk
Pronunciation: ( jûrk), [key] — n.
- a quick, sharp pull, thrust, twist, throw, or the like; a sudden movement: The train started with a jerk.
- a spasmodic, usually involuntary, muscular movement, as the reflex action of pulling the hand away from a flame.
- any sudden, quick movement of the body, as in dodging something.
- a contemptibly naive, fatuous, foolish, or inconsequential person.
- (in weightlifting) the raising of a weight from shoulder height to above the head by straightening the arms.
- See
- a dance, deriving from the twist, in which the dancers alternately thrust out their pelvises and their shoulders.
- paroxysms or violent spasmodic muscular movements, as resulting from excitement evoked by some religious services.
—v.t. - to pull, twist, move, thrust, or throw with a quick, suddenly arrested motion: She jerked the child by the hand.
- to utter in a broken, spasmodic way.
- to prepare, dispense, and serve (sodas, ice cream, etc.) at a soda fountain.
—v.i. - to give a jerk or jerks.
- to move with a quick, sharp motion; move spasmodically.
- to talk in a broken, spasmodic way.
- to work as a soda jerk.
- to dance the jerk.
- . to masturbate.
jerk
Pronunciation: ( jûrk), [key] — v.t.
- to preserve (meat, esp. beef&hasp;) by cutting in strips and curing by drying in the sun.
—n. - jerky.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.