DCHP-1 Online

jack

• 1 n. a large species of pike, Esox lucius, found in northern waters.

  See also: northern pike  jackfish  

  • 1696  (1929)  To day 5 of our men came from the fourteens which brought 7 Jacks and 20 patridges likewise two from french Creek with 2 Jack and two trout.
  • 1792  (1934)  Tuesday at 4 AM took up our nets got as many small Jack and Suckers as made a meal.
  • 1897  Brochet is F. name of the pike, a fish, otherwise called jack; and the tete du brochet is literally jackhead, another name of the same fish.
  • 1959  Plenty of jacks and pickerel but no trout.

• 2 n. a light used at night to attract fish.

  See also: jacklight ((n.)) (def. 1)  

  • 1842  It is a very pretty sight to see these little barks . . . rendered visible in the darkness by the blaze of light cast on the water from the jack--a sort of open grated iron basket, fixed to a long pole at the bows of the skiff or canoe. This is filled with a very combustible substance, called fat-pine, which burns with a fierce and rapid flame, or else with rolls of birch-bark, which is also very easily ignited.
  • 1878  Its dark pine-clad shores used to be enlivened with the canoes and skiffs of the fisher, stealing out from the little bays and coves, with the red glare of the fat-pine all ablaze, casting its stream of light upon the dark surface of the waters, from the open-grated iron basket or jack, as it was called, raised at one end of the little vessel on a tall pole.
  • 1885  Three or four would set out with spears, with a man to carry the jack, and also a supply of dry pineknots. . . .
  • 1903  Hear their shouts as they race up and down the stream for suckers, pike, mullet, and eels. "Here he goes . . . plague on your jack--you missed that big fellow.

• 3 n. Nfld. a small two-masted fishing schooner, sometimes equipped with outriggers.

  See also: jackboat  

  • 1895  . . . the gashers [were] dashing in and out among the punts and jacks (stoutly built two-stickers larger than gashers).
  • 1937  Bill had a nice little jack (small fishing schooner, in this case with outriggers on the quarters instead of booms) which took my fancy, and which he guaranteed had a pitchline-oak bottom, whatever that might be.

• 4 n. a person whose occupation is logging (def. 2).

  See also: logger (def. 1)  logging (def. 2)  lumberjack (def. 1)  

  • 1910  The "jacks" do not dine on half a pasteboard package of chips. . . .
  • 1961  The jacks who felled the trees and the workers who stripped them were called piqueteurs. . . .

• 5a n. any of several large North American hares found in the West, as Lepus americanus and, especially, L. townsendii.

  See also: jack-rabbit  

  • 1923  "The jacks o' the prairies is twice the size."
  • 1964  [Caption] The jack's ears flop back in annoyance.

• 5b n. See quotes at big jack.

  See also: big jack  

  • 1947  "My young lad has been hunting for jacks all winter, and he ain't got one yet."
  • 1962  During the first drive I had a jack come directly towards me along a fence.

• 6 n. B.C. a salmon that matures early, usually in its third year.

  • 1958  Some precocious fish, usually males, return as three-year-old "jacks". . . .The jacks average nineteen inches in length and about three pounds in weight. . . .
  • 1959  A few sockeye, for the most part males, mature at 3 years of age and are frequently referred to as grilse and sometimes "jacks."
  • 1961  Anadromous sockeye salmon usually mature in their 4th or 5th year of life, but sometimes large numbers of males mature in their 3rd year, when they are known as "jack" sockeye. Fewer individuals spawn in their 6th or 7th year.
  • 1964  Some [Chinook] males become sexually mature in their second or third years, while still quite small; these are commonly called "jacks" or "jack springs."