jerk

Meanings

Noun

• A sudden, often uncontrolled movement, especially of the body.
• A quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
• A person with unlikable or obnoxious qualities and behavior, typically mean, self-centered or disagreeable.
• A dull or stupid person.
• The rate of change in acceleration with respect to time.
• A soda jerk.
• 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.
• A rich, spicy Jamaican marinade.
• Meat cured by jerking; charqui.

Verb

• To make a sudden uncontrolled movement.
• To give a quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
• To masturbate.
• To beat, to hit.
• To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.
• To lift using a jerk.
• To flout with contempt.
• To cure (meat) by cutting it into strips and drying it, originally in the sun.

Related

Similar words

• jolt, lurch, jump
• yank
• numbskull
• jolt , surge, lurch

Origin

• Probably from Middle English yerk ("sudden motion") and Middle English yerkid, from Old English ġearc ("ready, active, quick") and Old English ġearcian. Related to yare.
• From American Spanish charquear, from charqui, from Quechua ch'arki.