jacking

Pluraljackings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of jack.

   Jacking a heavy truck on soft ground is risky without a wide plate under the jack.

   Landlords across the city are jacking up rents before the new law takes effect.

   Note

   The -ing form covers a wide spread, and a particle often settles the meaning. Jacking or jacking up raises a car or a price, while jacking off is vulgar. Without a particle it can mean stealing in casual speech, rippling the torso in a dance, or strengthening a drink by freezing out its water. The same spelling is also the noun for a street robbery.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A robbery committed against a person in the street.

   Two teenagers were arrested after a jacking outside the convenience store.

   Most jackings in the neighborhood happen late at night, when people are walking home alone.

   Similarmugging, robbery, holdup, stickup

   Note

   This noun belongs to casual talk about crime: William B. Sanders's Gangbangs and Drive-Bys (1994) reports gang members describing jackings as crimes of opportunity, seized on the spot rather than planned. It names a robbery of a person, not a break-in, and it counts normally, one jacking or several jackings. In news or legal writing, street robbery is the safer phrase.

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