or jackyleg, subs. (Scots’).—A large pocket-knife. [From Jacques de Liège, a famous cutler.] For synonyms, see CHIVE.

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  1730.  RAMSAY, Fables and Tales, in Wks. (1849), iii. 172.

        And lay out ony ora-bodles
On sma’ gimcracks that pleased their noddles,
Sic as a JOCTALEG, or sheers.

2

  1787.  GROSE, A Provincial Glossary, etc., s.v. JOCTELEG, Liege formerly supplied Scotland with cutlery.

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  1791.  BURNS, ‘To Captain Grose.’

        The knife that nicket Abel’s craig
          He’ll prove ye fully,
It was a faulding JOCTELEG
          Or lang-kail gully.

4

  1874.  E. L. LINTON, Patricia Kemball, xxv. A huge buckhorn-handled knife of the kind called in the north JACKYLEGS, or JOCTELEGS.

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