Also 6 Iacke of the boxe.
† 1. A name for a sharper or cheat; spec. ‘a thief who deceived tradesmen by substituting empty boxes for others full of money’ (Nares). Obs.
1570. Satir. Poems Reform., xxii. 78. Jak in the bokis, for all thy mokis a vengeance mot the fall! Thy subteltie and palȝardrie our fredome bringis in thrall.
1612. Dekker, Cryer of Lanthorne, etc. xi. This Iacke in a Boxe or this Deuill in mans shape … comes to a Golde-smithes stall.
1623. Middleton, etc. Sp. Gipsy, IV. i. Jack in boxes nor Decoyes, Puppets, nor such poore things.
1639. Glapthorne, Argalus, v. Wks. 1874, I. 61. These women … toungs that lie worse than false clocks, By which they catch men like Jacks in a box.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Jack in a Box, a Sharper, or Cheat.
1725. in New Cant. Dict.
† 2. Applied contemptuously to the consecrated host, with an allusion to its reservation in the pyx.
1555. Ridley, Last Exam., in Foxe, A. & M. (1583), 1759. Rayling billes agaynst the sacramente, termynge it ‘Iacke of the boxe,’ ‘the sacramente of the halter,’ ‘round Robin,’ with like vnseemely termes.
3. The name of some gambling games.
1592. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will (1600), G iij. When I should haue beene at schoole, I was close vnder a hedge … playing at spanne counter or Iacke in a boxe.
1664. J. Wilson, Cheats, IV. i. Dram. Wks. (1874), 67. Did not I … teach you your top, your palm, and your slur, Shew’d you the mystery of jack-in-the-box, and the frail die?
b. ‘A game in which some article, of more or less value, is placed on the top of a stick standing in a hole, and thrown at with sticks. If the article be hit so as to fall clear of the hole, the thrower takes it.’ (Farmer, Slang.)
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Greenw. Fair (1850), 67/2. The allurements of the stout proprietress of the ‘Jack-in-the-box, three shies a penny.’
† 4. A street pedlar stationed in a portable stall or box. Obs.
1699. E. Ward, Lond. Spy, III. 13. Here and there a Jack in a box, like a Parson in a Pulpit, selling Cures for your Corns, Glass Eyes for the Blind.
5. A kind of firework.
1635. J. Babington, Pyrotechnia, xxxvii. 45. Another, which I call Iack in a box.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, II. 44. Jacks-in-the-box, and all sorts of fireworks.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 Nov., 5/2. There is more attraction to the ordinary child in a handful of ‘blue devils,’ ‘golden rains,’ ‘Roman candles,’ and a ‘jack-in-the-box’ than a grand Crystal Palace show.
6. A toy consisting of a box containing a figure with a spring, which leaps up when the lid is raised. Also fig.
1702. Infernal Wanderer (N.). Up started every one in his seat, like a Jack in a box, crying out Legit aut non Legit.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, lxiv. Could he have jumped up twenty times, like Jack-in-the-Box.
1856. Reade, It is never too late, lxx. Two figures … came bounding like Jacks-in-the-box out of the gloom into the red light.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 14 Oct., 8/1. Battles are won by resolute, enthusiastic men, not by jacks-in-boxes.
7. Applied to various mechanical contrivances.
† a. A self-acting valve for relieving water-mains from accumulations of air. Obs. b. A screw-jack or lifting-jack, esp. one used in stowing cargo on board ship. c. A kind of screw-press: see quot. 1801. d. An instrument with a small but powerful screw, used by burglars to break open safes or doors. e. = JACK-FRAME 2.
1726. Desaguliers, in Phil. Trans., XXXIV. 82. This machine which from its make we call Jack in a Box will be useful where ever water is to be conveyed a great way in Pipes.
1801. J. J. Moore, Vocab. Sea Phrases, Jack in the box, a large wooden male screw, turning in a female one, which forms the upper part of a strong wooden box, shaped like the frustrum of a pyramid. It is used … as a press.
1824. Ann. Reg. (1825), 8 April, 49/1. [He] with the assistance of hand-spikes and a hand screw, called by the sailors, ‘Jack in the Box,’… threw over the stone.
1841. Jones, Specif. Patent No. 8988. 2. This differential movement now commonly called the ‘Jack-in-the box’ is governed by the varying rotation of the pinion D.
1850. Chubb, Locks & Keys, 23. Some years ago, one of Chubb’s locks, fixed on a common iron safe, was forced open by a burglar’s instrument, called a ‘Jack-in-the-Box.’
8. a. A West Indian tree, Hernandia sonora, bearing large nuts that rattle in their pericarps when shaken. b. A local appellation of the wild arum, Arum maculatum; cf. Jack-in-the-pulpit s.v. JACK sb.1 38; also, of a hose-in-hose variety of primrose (Britt. & Holl.); cf. JACK sb.1 32 a.
1752–9. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Hernandia, The Hernandia … with a large umbilicated Ivy Leaf, commonly called in the West-Indies, Jack-in-a-Box.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 373. Jack-in-a-box, the cups that sustain the nuts are very large, and as they move in the wind, keep a whistling noise, which is often frightful to unwary travellers.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Hernandia, The whistling hernandia … in the West Indies is frequently denominated the Jack-in-a-box tree.
9. A fisherman’s name for a hermit crab. U.S.
