jigger

Meanings

Noun

• A double-ended vessel, generally of stainless steel or other metal, one end of which typically measures 1 ½ fluid ounces, the other typically 1 fluid ounce.
• A measure of 1 ½ fluid ounces of liquor.
• A drink of whisky.
• The sieve used in sorting or separating ore.
• One who jigs; a miner who sorts or cleans ore by the process of jigging.
• A horizontal lathe used in producing flatware.
• A device used in the dyeing of cloth.
• A pendulum rolling machine for slicking or graining leather.
• A bicycle.
• A golf club used to play low flying shots to the putting green from short distances.
• A warehouse crane.
• A light tackle, consisting of a double and single block and the fall, used for various purposes, as to increase the purchase on a topsail sheet in hauling it home; the watch tackle.
• A jiggermast.
• A small fishing vessel, rigged like a yawl.
• A device used by fishermen to set their nets under the ice of frozen lakes.
• One who dances jigs; an odd-looking person.
• A short board or plank inserted into a tree for a person to stand on while cutting off higher branches.
• A railway jigger, a small motorized or human powered vehicle used by railway workers to traverse railway tracks.
• The bridge or rest for the cue in billiards.
• An illicit electric shock device used to urge on a horse during a race.
• A streetcar drawn by a single horse.
• A kind of early electric cash register.
• A sandflea, Tunga penetrans, of the order Siphonaptera; chigoe.
• A larva of any of several mites in the family Trombiculidae (family); chigger, harvest mite.
• A prison; a jail cell.
• An alleyway separating the backs of two rows of houses.
• A penis.
• A vagina.
• A door.
• An illegal distillery.
• A lock pick.

Verb

• To alter or adjust, particularly in ways not originally intended.
• To use a jigger.
• To move, send, or drive with a jerk; to jerk; also, to drive or send over with a jerk, as a golf ball.
• To imprison.
• To confound; to damn.

Related

Similar words

• jolley
• jiggermast
• pony
• handcar; speeder

Origin

• From jig + -er.
• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga.
• Likely a corruption of chigoe. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible derivation from Wolof jiga.
• A slang term of unknown origin, originally meaning prison. Oxford English Dictionary suggests that its origin might be the same as Etymology 1, above.