# jerk

Pronunciation: say "JURK" US /ˈdʒɜɹk/, UK /ˈdʒɜːk/

## Noun

1. Informal: an unpleasant, stupid, or obnoxious person, especially one who is mean or inconsiderate. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: A rude, mean, or stupid person.
   - _Her ex was a real jerk who never once remembered her birthday._
   - _I was a jerk to you yesterday, and I'm sorry._
3. A quick, sharp, sudden movement or pull, often one that is not under control.
   - Simple: A sudden quick movement or pull.
   - _His leg gave a jerk every time the doctor tapped his knee._
   - _With a series of jerks, the freight train began to crawl out of the yard._
4. Meat or vegetables coated in a hot, spicy Jamaican marinade and cooked slowly over a fire or grill; also the marinade or seasoning itself. *(Caribbean, Jamaica)*
   - Simple: Jamaican spicy meat cooked over a fire, or the spicy sauce or seasoning used for it.
   - _The roadside stand sells jerk by the pound, wrapped in foil with hard dough bread._
   - _We ordered jerk with rice and peas, and it was hot enough to make us sweat._
5. A lift in which the weight is driven quickly from shoulder height to overhead and held there briefly with the arms fully extended.
   - Simple: A lift where you push a weight fast from your shoulders to above your head and hold it there.
   - _She cleaned the bar easily but lost it forward on the jerk._
   - _His coach spent the whole session drilling the footwork of the jerk._
9. A dance, popular in the West in the 1960s, in which the dancer throws the head and upper body forward in time to the beat.
   - Simple: A dance from the 1960s where you throw your head and upper body forward to the beat.
   - _When the old record came on at the reunion, everyone got up to do the jerk._
   - _My parents learned the jerk at a high school dance and never stopped doing it._
10. The rate at which acceleration changes over time.
   - Simple: How quickly acceleration changes over time, so how suddenly speeding up or slowing down starts or stops.
   - _Engineers limit jerk so that passengers aren't thrown off balance when the elevator starts to accelerate._
   - _The software calculates jerk from the accelerometer readings to flag harsh braking._

## Verb

2. To move, or make someone or something move, with a sudden, sharp motion.
   - Simple: To move suddenly and sharply, or make someone or something move this way.
   - _His hand jerked, and coffee splashed across the desk._
   - _Muscles can jerk briefly just as a person is falling asleep._
6. To masturbate. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: To touch your own body sexually for pleasure.
   - _The comedian's whole bit was about getting caught jerking it in a dorm room._
   - _Stop bragging about how often you jerk it; nobody wants to know._
7. To slice meat into strips and dry them to cure it, a process originally carried out in the sun.
   - Simple: To keep meat from going bad by cutting it into strips and drying it.
   - _Settlers jerked buffalo meat on racks in the sun to carry on the long trip west._
   - _If you jerk the venison now, it will keep for months._
8. To lift a weight by means of a jerk, driving it from the shoulders to overhead.
   - Simple: To lift a weight with a jerk, pushing it fast from the shoulders to above the head.
   - _She jerked the bar overhead and held it until the referee signaled._
   - _Few lifters at the meet could jerk that much weight after such a hard clean._

## Noun

11. A soda jerk: someone who works behind a soda fountain, mixing and serving drinks and ice cream. *(obsolete, US)*
   - Simple: A soda jerk, a person who makes and serves drinks and ice cream at a soda fountain.

## Verb

12. To throw something with a quick motion of the hand that is suddenly stopped. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To throw something with a quick flick of the hand that stops suddenly.
13. To beat or strike. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To hit or beat someone or something.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Masturbation, or an act of masturbating.
- (noun) A piece of satire mocking behavior that is fairly common in a community, especially on circlejerk subreddits.
- (verb) To poke satirical fun at habits that are fairly widespread among members of a community, a practice especially associated with circlejerk subreddits.
- (verb) To flout or scorn openly, treating someone or something with contempt.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5–6, 8–13** — Probably from Middle English yerk (“sudden motion”) and yerkid (“tightly pulled”), from Old English ġearc (“ready, active, quick”) and ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, supply”). It is cognate with Scots yerk (“to jerk”) and also related to English yare (“ready”).
**Meanings 4, 7** — From jerky, which came from Spanish charqui, from Quechua ch'arki.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/jerk (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).