Find your perfect word!

Definition jigger

Etymology 1

From jig +‎ -er (agent suffix).

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German g?ga (“fiddle”).

Noun

jigger (plural jiggers)

1. (US) A double-ended vessel, generally of stainless steel or other metal, one end of which typically measures 1 1/2 fluid ounces, the other typically 1 fluid ounce.
2. (US) A measure of 1 1/2 fluid ounces of liquor.
3. (US, slang) A drink of whisky.
4. (mining) The sieve used in sorting or separating ore.
5. (mining) One who jigs; a miner who sorts or cleans ore by the process of jigging.
6. (pottery) A horizontal lathe used in producing flatware.
7. (textiles) A device used in the dyeing of cloth.
8. A pendulum rolling machine for slicking or graining leather.
9. (Britain, slang, dated) A bicycle.
10. (golf, dated) A golf club used to play low flying shots to the putting green from short distances.
11. A warehouse crane.
12. (nautical) 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.
13. (nautical) A jiggermast.
14. (nautical, New England) A small fishing vessel, rigged like a yawl.
15. (fishing) A device used by fishermen to set their nets under the ice of frozen lakes.
16. (archaic) One who dances jigs; an odd-looking person.
17. (New Zealand) A short board or plank inserted into a tree for a person to stand on while cutting off higher branches.
18. (US) A placeholder name for any small mechanical device.
19. (rail transport, New Zealand) A railway jigger, a small motorized or human powered vehicle used by railway workers to traverse railway tracks.
20. The bridge or rest for the cue in billiards.
21. (horse racing) An illicit electric shock device used to urge on a horse during a race.
22. (archaic) A streetcar drawn by a single horse.
23. (archaic) A kind of early electric cash register.

Verb

jigger (third-person singular simple present jiggers, present participle jiggering, simple past and past participle jiggered)

1. To alter or adjust, particularly in ways not originally intended.
2. (pottery) To use a jigger.
3. To move, send, or drive with a jerk; to jerk; also, to drive or send over with a jerk, as a golf ball.

Etymology 2

Likely a corruption of chigoe. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible derivation from Wolof jiga (“insect”).

Noun

jigger (plural jiggers)

1. A sandflea, Tunga penetrans, of the order Siphonaptera; chigoe.
2. A larva of any of several mites in the family Trombiculidae; chigger, harvest mite.

Etymology 3

A slang term of unknown origin, originally meaning prison. Oxford English Dictionary suggests that its origin might be the same as Etymology 1, above.

Noun

jigger (plural jiggers)

1. (slang, archaic) A prison; a jail cell.
2. (dialectal, Liverpudlian, dated) An alleyway separating the backs of two rows of houses.
3. (slang, euphemistic) A penis.
4. (slang, euphemistic) A vagina.
5. (obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) A door.
6. (slang) An illegal distillery.
7. (slang, Britain) A lock pick.

Verb

jigger (third-person singular simple present jiggers, present participle jiggering, simple past and past participle jiggered)

1. (slang, obsolete) To imprison.
2. (slang, archaic) To confound; to damn.

Results 34 Words with the letters JIGGER

You can also try words with the phrase JIGGER, words starting with the letters JIGGER, or words ending in the letters JIGGER.

Favorites Searches

Words… ending with q, starting with q, starting with qa, starting with qo, with two letters, starting with x, starting with j, ending with j,

Some random searches: Words with the letters JXEYO, Words with the letters FXPDY, Words with the letters LIL, Words with the letters XDMVKE,