jig

Meanings

Noun

  • A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
  • A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.
  • A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
  • A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
  • A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.
  • An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
  • A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
  • A trick; a prank.
  • A black person.

Verb

  • To move briskly, especially as a dance.
  • To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.
  • To fish with a jig.
  • To sing to the tune of a jig.
  • To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.
  • To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
  • To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.

Origin

  • Unknown. A derivation from Old French gigue has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern gigue is borrowed from English.
  • , of uncertain origin, perhaps an African/ word. Alternatively, jigaboo is derived from jig.

Modern English dictionary

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