subs. (common).—1. In pl. = delirium tremens. For synonyms, see GALLON-DISTEMPER.
2. In pl. (American).—Religious paroxysm.
1874. EGGLESTON, The Circuit Rider, xii. These Methodis’ sets people crazy with the JERKS.
3. (old).—A retort; a jest; a quirk.
1653. R. BROME, A Mad Couple Well Match’d, i., 1 [in Five Newe Playes], p. 13. I charge you meddle not with my wife, you have had two or three JERKS at her.
4. (old).—A stripe; a lash with a whip. Hence JERKING (or YERKING), adj. = lashing; stinging; JERK, verb., = to lash; and TO CLY the JERK (old cant) = to be whipped at the post.
1557–8. Jacob and Esau [DODSLEY, Old Plays (1874), ii. 194]. Come on, ye must have three JERKS for the nonce.
1597. JOSEPH HALL, Satires, ii. 6.
| But he must ask his mother to define, | |
| How manie JERKES she would his breech should line. |
1598. MARSTON, Satyres, iii. Ne’er YERKING him with my satyric whip.
1609. DEKKER, Lanthorne and Candlelight (GROSART, Wks.), iii. 203. If we heaue a booth we CLY THE IERKE.
1653. R. BROME, The Damoiselle, in Wks. (1872), ii. 448. I’ faith she JERKED that humour out of me.
5. (various).—A common verb of action, especially if rapid.
[Some combinations are: TO JERK THE CAT = to vomit; TO JERK THE TINKLER = to ring the bell; TO JERK ONE’S JUICE or JELLY (also TO JERK OFF) = to masturbate; TO JERK CHINMUSIC = to talk; TO JERK A POEM, ARTICLE or BOOK = to write; TO JERK A GYBE = to counterfeit a license; JERKED, or JERKED TO JESUS (American) = hanged; IN A JERK = instantly; DR. JERK = flogging schoolmaster.
1622. HEAD and KIRKMAN, The English Rogue. A Jybe well JERKED.
1651. On Doctor Gill, Formerly Master of St. Paul’s School, in D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, III., p. 13.
| In Paul’s Church-yard in London, | |
| There dwells a noble Firker, | |
| Take heed you that pass, | |
| Lest you taste of his Lash, | |
| For I have found him a JIRKER. |
1752. FOOTE, Taste (1781). The child has been two years and three quarters at school with DR. JERK near Doncaster.
1755. JOHNSON, A Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. JERK. To strike up; to accost eagerly … is mere cant.
1772. G. A. STEVENS, Songs, Comic and Satyrical, ‘The Specific.’ Pour Wine into Wounds you’ll be cur’d with a JERK.
1837. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xv. JERK THE TINKLER. These words, in plain English, conveyed an injunction to ring the bell.
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, p. 332. The thing I’m now on is to roust out somebody to JERK a little chin-music for us.
