Also 6–7 ioult. [Etymology obscure: see Note below.]
† 1. trans. To butt or push with the head, elbow, or other blunt part; to give a push or knock to; to nudge. Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Coudéer, to iog or ioult with the elbow. Ibid., Tabuter, to ioult, butt, or push.
1778. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 18 June. I jolted Mr. Crisp, who, very much perplexed, said,… that it was a novel.
2. To shake up from one’s seat or place with a sudden jerk or succession of jerks, esp. in locomotion; to carry or transport with jolts. (Chiefly in passive.)
1599. [see JOLTING ppl. a.].
1607. Dekker & Webster, Westw. Hoe, II. iii. D.’s Wks. 1873, II. 311. O fie vpont: a Coach? I cannot abide to be iolted.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 268. We are yet to be jolted and rattled over the loose misplaced stones.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 247. Their object is to advance by steps as in walking, without jolting the carriage.
1877. Black, Green Past., xlvi. (1878), 370. We were once more jolted over the unmade roads.
3. To move or throw (anything) up with a jerk; to force out in a jerky manner.
a. 1845. Hood, The Desert-Born, 189. My scanty breath was jolted out with many a sudden groan.
1896. Liberal Mag., Dec., 507. The contest between State-aid and Rate-aid ended in jolting the two up together in one scheme.
4. intr. Of a vehicle, etc.: To receive an abrupt and rough jerk in moving; to move along with a succession of jolts, as on an uneven road.
a. 1703. Pomfret, Last Epiph., Poems (1790), 138. The globe shall backward jolt, distorted with the wound.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 34, ¶ 6. He whipped his horses, the coach jolted again.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 430. Waggons laden with the sick jolted over the rugged pavement.
5. intr. Of a person: To ride with constant jolts.
1730. Mrs. Delany, Lett., to Mrs. A. Granville, 266. Good-night, I have jolted all over the City, and am so tired I can only say I am … Yours, M. P.
1880. W. H. Dixon, Royal Windsor, III. xxi. 210. To jolt along the road was painful.
6. intr. To move up and down or to and fro in a jerky manner.
1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Lett. to Mr. Twining, 20 Jan. The shoulders … jolting up and down in the convulsions of a hoarse laugh.
1849. H. Mayo, Pop. Superst. (1851), 125. With head, limbs, and trunk twitching and jolting in every direction.
[Note. The etymology of jolt vb. and sb., and their derivatives, and of words apparently allied in form and sense, is, in the present state of the evidence, involved in obscurity and difficulty. Jolt-head is known in 1533; jolt-headed (in the form cholt-headed) in 1552; jolting pate, app. in the sense of jolt-head, in 1579; while the simple vb. and sb. jolt, are not known till 1599. But JOT v.1, largely identical in sense with jolt, is quoted at least from 1530, and may be a century earlier. Sense 1 of jolt, both in sb. and vb., has evident affinities with joll, JOWL sb.4, v.1, and perh. with JOWL sb.2; but the other senses of jolt vb. coincide with those of jot vb. Jolt has thus the appearance of an alteration of jot, influenced by jowl, and perh. by jolt-head, which latter is evidently related in some way to JOWL sb.4 or JOWL sb.2: the form cholt-headed esp. recalls the cholle form of the latter. (Cf. also the mod. dial. cholter-, chowter-headed = JOLTER-HEADED.) It has been suggested that jolt-head may have been a phonetic variant of *jolled- or *jowl’d head, and that jolt vb. was a back-formation from it, perh. through jolting pate: but this has obvious difficulties, phonetic and semantic. Further evidence may harmonize facts, which are at present somewhat contradictory.]
