| English Dictionary |
JERKY (jerkier, jerkiest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, jerkiest Dictionary entry overview: What does jerky mean?
• JERKY (noun)
The noun JERKY has 1 sense:
1. meat (especially beef) cut in strips and dried in the sun
Familiarity information: JERKY used as a noun is very rare.
• JERKY (adjective)
The adjective JERKY has 3 senses:
1. lacking a steady rhythm
2. marked by abrupt transitions
3. having or revealing stupidity
Familiarity information: JERKY used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Meat (especially beef) cut in strips and dried in the sun
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Synonyms:
jerk; jerked meat; jerky
Hypernyms ("jerky" is a kind of...):
meat (the flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jerky"):
beef jerky (strips of dried beef)
biltong (meat that is salted and cut into strips and dried in the sun)
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: jerkiest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking a steady rhythm
Synonyms:
arrhythmic; jerking; jerky
Context example:
an arrhythmic heartbeat
Similar:
unsteady (subject to change or variation)
Derivation:
jerk (an abrupt spasmodic movement)
jerkiness (the quality of being spasmodic and irregular)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Marked by abrupt transitions
Synonyms:
choppy; jerky
Context example:
choppy prose
Similar:
sudden (happening without warning or in a short space of time)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having or revealing stupidity
Synonyms:
anserine; dopey; dopy; foolish; gooselike; goosey; goosy; jerky
Context example:
some fool idea about rewriting authors' books
Similar:
stupid (lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Derivation:
jerk (a dull stupid fatuous person)
Context examples
Holmes and I had listened with the utmost interest to this extraordinary statement, which had been delivered in the jerky, broken fashion of a man who is under the influence of extreme emotions.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Impelled by the blows that rained upon him, now from this side, now from that, White Fang swung back and forth like an erratic and jerky pendulum.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
I have tried to imitate here Lord Roxton's jerky talk, his short, strong sentences, the half-humorous, half-reckless tone that ran through it all.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His was a broken, jerky utterance, caused by the violence with which he hammered his numb hand upon the wood.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
He spoke in little, sharp, jerky outbursts, and it seemed to me that to speak at all was very painful to him, and that his will all through was overriding his inclinations.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Like most men of action, he is laconic in speech, and sinks readily into his own thoughts, but he is always quick to answer a question or join in a conversation, talking in a queer, jerky, half-humorous fashion.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He spoke in a nervous, jerky fashion, and with little giggling laughs in between, but somehow he impressed me with fear more than the other.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"It is easier for the son to ask from the father than for the father to ask from the son" (Breton proverb)
"When you are dead, your sister's tears will dry as time goes on, your widow's tears will cease in another's arms, but your mother will mourn you until she dies." (Arabic proverb)
"Lovers and lords want only to be alone together." (Corsican proverb)