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Nick vs Jack - What's the difference?

nick | jack |

As proper nouns the difference between nick and jack

is that nick is a diminutive of the male given name nicholas while jack is , also used as a pet form of john or jack can be (slang) jack daniel's, a brand of american whiskey.

As a noun jack is

(informal) a placeholder or conventional name for any man, particularly a younger, lower-class man.

nick

English

(wikipedia nick)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small cut in a surface.
  • # A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
  • in the nick of time
  • #*, II.20:
  • Truely he flies when he is even upon the nicke , and naturally hasteneth to escape it, as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe, and feareth to sinke into it.
  • #* Howell
  • to cut it off in the very nick
  • # (printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.
  • Meanings connoting something small.
  • # (cricket) A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.
  • # (real tennis) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.
  • # (genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.
  • (archaic) A nixie, or water-sprite.
  • * 1879 , Viktor Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages (p.201)
  • *:imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks , river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire.
  • a user's reserved nick on an IRC network
  • (UK, slang) In the expressions in bad nick'' and ''in good nick : condition.
  • The car I bought was cheap and in good nick .
  • * '>citation
  • (British, slang) A police station or prison.
  • He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.
    He's just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

    Derived terms

    * in the nick of time

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.
  • I nicked myself while I was shaving.
  • # To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).
  • # To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.
  • #* Prior
  • And thence proceed to nicking sashes.
  • #* Shakespeare
  • The itch of his affection should not then / Have nicked his captainship.
  • To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
  • * Camden
  • Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.
  • # To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.
  • #* L'Estrange
  • The just season of doing things must be nicked , and all accidents improved.
  • # To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.
  • #* {{quote-book, year=1773
  • , author=Oliver Goldsmith , title=She Stoops to Conquer , text=My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.}}
  • # (cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection
  • (obsolete) To nickname; to style.
  • * Ford
  • For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.
  • (slang) To steal.
  • Someone's nicked my bike!
  • (transitive, British, slang) To arrest.
  • The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.

    jack

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) , from the name Jack, from (etyl) Jacques

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mechanical device used to raise and (temporarily) support a heavy object, e.g. screw jack, scissor jack, hydraulic jack, ratchet jack, scaffold jack.
  • She used a jack to lift her car and changed the tire.
  • A man or men in general.
  • Every man jack .
  • A male animal.
  • A male ass.
  • (card games) The card ranking between the (ten) and (queen) of any suit, picturing a knave or prince on its face. In some card games has a value of eleven based on its rank, but in many card games has a value of ten like the ten'', ''queen'', and (king) cards. Also called a ''knave .
  • (archaic) A knave (a servant or later, a deceitful man).
  • *
  • , related to the mango tree.
  • A surface-mounted connector for electrical, especially telecommunications, equipment.
  • telephone jack
  • (sports) A target ball in bowls, etc; a jack-ball.
  • * (rfdate), Sir (Walter Scott)
  • like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon it
  • (games) A small, six-pointed playing piece used in the game of jacks.
  • (colloquial, euphemistic) Nothing, jack shit.
  • You haven't done jack . Get up and get this room cleaned up right now!
  • (nautical) A small flag at the bow of a ship.
  • (nautical) A naval ensign flag flown from the main mast, mizzen mast, or the aft-most major mast of (especially) British sailing warships; Union Jack.
  • (military) A coarse and cheap medieval coat of defense, especially one made of leather.
  • *
  • A penny with a head on both sides, used for cheating. (Reference: Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language , second edition, 1966, chapter XI section 3, page 243.)
  • (slang) Money.
  • * 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), The Big Sleep , Penguin 2011, page 133:
  • First off Regan carried fifteen grand, packed it in his clothes all the time. Real money, they tell me. Not just a top card and a bunch of hay. That's a lot of jack [...].
  • (slang, Appalachians) A smooth often ovoid large gravel or small cobble in a natural water course.
  • A common name for the freshwater pike, green pike or pickerel.
  • A large California rockfish.
  • Any marine fish or the species of the Carangidae family.
  • (obsolete, nautical) A sailor; a "jack tar".
  • (obsolete) A pitcher or can of waxed leather, supposed to resemble a jackboot; a black-jack.
  • (Dryden)
  • (UK, dialect, obsolete) A drinking measure holding half a pint or, sometimes, a quarter of a pint.
  • (Halliwell)
  • A mechanical contrivance, an auxiliary machine, or a subordinate part of a machine.
  • # A device to pull off boots.
  • # A sawhorse or sawbuck.
  • # A machine for turning a spit; a smokejack.
  • # (mining) A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting.
  • # A lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles in a knitting machine.
  • # A grating to separate and guide the threads in a warping machine; a heck box.
  • # A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine.
  • # A compact, portable machine for planing metal.
  • # A machine for slicking or pebbling leather.
  • # A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed.
  • # A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught.
  • # In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; also called hopper.
  • # In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself.
  • # (nautical) A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead, to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal shrouds; also called jack crosstree.
  • Female ended electrical connector (see )
  • Electrical connector in a fixed position (see )
  • Synonyms
    * (playing card) knave * (male ass) jackass
    Derived terms
    * bicolor jack * blackfin jack * bootjack * cheap-jack * cottonmouth jack * Crevalle jack * green jack * horse-eye jack * jackanapes * jack-o'-lantern * jack of all trades * jack over * jack plug * jack rabbit * one-eyed jack * Senegal jack * trolley jack * whitetongue jack * Union Jack * yellowfin jack
    See also
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To use a jack.
  • He jacked the car up so that he could replace the brake pads.
  • To raise or increase.
  • If you want to jack your stats you just write off failures as invalid results.
  • (colloquial) To steal something, typically an automobile. Contraction of carjacking
  • Someone jacked my car last night!
  • To dance by moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion.
  • Derived terms
    * jack up (several meanings) * jack off

    Etymology 2

    (en)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (transitive, slang, baseball) To hit (the ball) hard; especially, to hit (the ball) out of the field, producing a home run.
  • * 1986 , in Arete: The Journal of Sport Literature , Volume 4, Sport Literature Association:
  • An excellent piece of work, Wayne thought, so good in fact, he wasn’t surprised when Bailey walked to the plate and on the first pitch jacked the ball far into the parking lot outside the left-field fence for a tournament winning homerun.
  • * 2004 , Wayne Stewart, Hitting Secrets of the Pros: Big League Sluggers Reveal the Tricks of Their Trade , McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 9780071418249, page 90:
  • Therefore, even though Vizquel is certainly not a power hitter, at times he will try to jack the ball, perhaps pulling it with just enough oomph to carry down the line for a homer.
  • * Jim McManus, quoted in T.J. Lewis, A View from the Mound: My Father’s Life in Baseball , Lulu.com (publisher, 2008), ISBN 9781435714861, page 107:
  • Maybe he hung a curve ball to somebody and they jacked it out of the park on him and he wasn’t upset about it.
    Derived terms
    * jack in * jack it in * jack off

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) jaque, jacque, perhaps from the proper name Jacques. Compare jacquerie.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A coarse mediaeval coat of defence, especially one made of leather.
  • * Sir J. Harrington
  • Their horsemen are with jacks for most part clad.

    Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A jackfruit tree.
  • References

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