DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Jack n.
 1. A familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John.
    You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby.   --Shak.
 2. An impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a clown; also, a servant; a rustic. “Jack fool.”
 Since every Jack became a gentleman,
 There 's many a gentle person made a Jack.   --Shak.
 3. A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also Jack tar, and Jack afloat.
 4. A mechanical contrivance, an auxiliary machine, or a subordinate part of a machine, rendering convenient service, and often supplying the place of a boy or attendant who was commonly called Jack; as: (a) A device to pull off boots. (b) A sawhorse or sawbuck. (c) A machine or contrivance for turning a spit; a smoke jack, or kitchen jack. (b) Mining A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting. (e) Knitting Machine A lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles. (f) Warping Machine A grating to separate and guide the threads; a heck box. (g) Spinning A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine. (h) A compact, portable machine for planing metal. (i) A machine for slicking or pebbling leather. (k) A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed. (l) A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught. (m) In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; -- called also hopper. (n) In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself.  --C. Hallock.
 5. A portable machine variously constructed, for exerting great pressure, or lifting or moving a heavy body such as an automobile through a small distance. It consists of a lever, screw, rack and pinion, hydraulic press, or any simple combination of mechanical powers, working in a compact pedestal or support and operated by a lever, crank, capstan bar, etc. The name is often given to a jackscrew, which is a kind of jack.
 6. The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls.
    Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon it.   --Sir W. Scott.
 7. The male of certain animals, as of the ass.
 8. Zool. (a) A young pike; a pickerel. (b) The jurel. (c) A large, California rock fish (Sebastodes paucispinus); -- called also boccaccio, and mérou. (d) The wall-eyed pike.
 9. A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding a quarter of a pint. [Prov. Eng.]
 10. Naut. (a) A flag, containing only the union, without the fly, usually hoisted on a jack staff at the bowsprit cap; -- called also union jack. The American jack is a small blue flag, with a star for each State. (b) A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead, to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal shrouds; -- called also jack crosstree.
 11. The knave of a suit of playing cards.
 Note: ☞ Jack is used adjectively in various senses. It sometimes designates something cut short or diminished in size; as, a jack timber; a jack rafter; a jack arch, etc.
 Jack arch, an arch of the thickness of one brick.
 Jack back Brewing & Malt Vinegar Manuf., a cistern which receives the wort. See under 1st Back.
 Jack block Naut., a block fixed in the topgallant or royal rigging, used for raising and lowering light masts and spars.
 Jack boots, boots reaching above the knee; -- worn in the 17 century by soldiers; afterwards by fishermen, etc.
 Jack crosstree. Naut. See 10, b, above.
 Jack curlew Zool., the whimbrel.
 Jack frame. Cotton Spinning See 4 (g), above.
 Jack Frost, frost or cold weather personified as a mischievous person.
 Jack hare, a male hare. --Cowper.
 Jack lamp, a lamp for still hunting and camp use. See def. 4 (n.), above.
 Jack plane, a joiner's plane used for coarse work.
 Jack post, one of the posts which support the crank shaft of a deep-well-boring apparatus.
 Jack pot Poker Playing, the name given to the stakes, contributions to which are made by each player successively, till such a hand is turned as shall take the “pot,” which is the sum total of all the bets.  See also jackpot.
 Jack rabbit Zool., any one of several species of large American hares, having very large ears and long legs. The California species (Lepus Californicus), and that of Texas and New Mexico (Lepus callotis), have the tail black above, and the ears black at the tip. They do not become white in winter. The more northern prairie hare (Lepus campestris) has the upper side of the tail white, and in winter its fur becomes nearly white.
 Jack rafter Arch., in England, one of the shorter rafters used in constructing a hip or valley roof; in the United States, any secondary roof timber, as the common rafters resting on purlins in a trussed roof; also, one of the pieces simulating extended rafters, used under the eaves in some styles of building.
 Jack salmon Zool., the wall-eyed pike, or glasseye.
 Jack sauce, an impudent fellow. [Colloq. & Obs.]
 Jack shaft Mach., the first intermediate shaft, in a factory or mill, which receives power, through belts or gearing, from a prime mover, and transmits it, by the same means, to other intermediate shafts or to a line shaft.
 Jack sinker Knitting Mach., a thin iron plate operated by the jack to depress the loop of thread between two needles.
 Jack snipe. Zool. See in the Vocabulary.
 Jack staff Naut., a staff fixed on the bowsprit cap, upon which the jack is hoisted.
 Jack timber Arch., any timber, as a rafter, rib, or studding, which, being intercepted, is shorter than the others.
 Jack towel, a towel hung on a roller for common use.
 Jack truss Arch., in a hip roof, a minor truss used where the roof has not its full section.
 Jack tree. Bot. See 1st Jack, n.
 Jack yard Naut., a short spar to extend a topsail beyond the gaff.
 Blue jack, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.
 Hydraulic jack, a jack used for lifting, pulling, or forcing, consisting of a compact portable hydrostatic press, with its pump and a reservoir containing a supply of liquid, as oil.
 Jack-at-a-pinch. (a) One called upon to take the place of another in an emergency. (b) An itinerant parson who conducts an occasional service for a fee.
 Jack-at-all-trades, one who can turn his hand to any kind of work.
 Jack-by-the-hedge Bot., a plant of the genus Erysimum (Erysimum alliaria, or Alliaria officinalis), which grows under hedges. It bears a white flower and has a taste not unlike garlic. Called also, in England, sauce-alone. --Eng. Cyc.
 Jack-in-office, an insolent fellow in authority. --Wolcott.
 Jack-in-the-bush Bot., a tropical shrub with red fruit (Cordia Cylindrostachya).
 Jack-in-the-green, a chimney sweep inclosed in a framework of boughs, carried in Mayday processions.
 Jack-of-the-buttery Bot., the stonecrop (Sedum acre).
 Jack-of-the-clock, a figure, usually of a man, on old clocks, which struck the time on the bell.
 Jack-on-both-sides, one who is or tries to be neutral.
 Jack-out-of-office, one who has been in office and is turned out. --Shak.
 Jack the Giant Killer, the hero of a well-known nursery story.
 Yellow Jack Naut., the yellow fever; also, the quarantine flag. See Yellow flag, under Flag.

 Stone·crop n.
 1. A sort of tree. [Obs.]
 2. Bot. Any low succulent plant of the genus Sedum, esp. Sedum acre, which is common on bare rocks in Europe, and is spreading in parts of America. See Orpine.
 Virginian stonecrop, or Ditch stonecrop, an American plant (Penthorum sedoides).
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 Wall n.
 1. A work or structure of stone, brick, or other materials, raised to some height, and intended for defense or security, solid and permanent inclosing fence, as around a field, a park, a town, etc., also, one of the upright inclosing parts of a building or a room.
    The plaster of the wall of the King's palace.   --Dan. v. 5.
 2. A defense; a rampart; a means of protection; in the plural, fortifications, in general; works for defense.
    The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.   --Ex. xiv. 22.
 In such a night,
 Troilus, methinks, mounted the Troyan walls.   --Shak.
    To rush undaunted to defend the walls.   --Dryden.
 3. An inclosing part of a receptacle or vessel; as, the walls of a steam-engine cylinder.
 4. Mining (a) The side of a level or drift.  (b) The country rock bounding a vein laterally.
 Note: ☞ Wall is often used adjectively, and also in the formation of compounds, usually of obvious signification; as in wall paper, or wall-paper; wall fruit, or wall-fruit; wallflower, etc.
 Blank wall, Blind wall, etc.  See under Blank, Blind, etc.
 To drive to the wall, to bring to extremities; to push to extremes; to get the advantage of, or mastery over.
 To go to the wall, to be hard pressed or driven; to be the weaker party; to be pushed to extremes.
 To take the wall. to take the inner side of a walk, that is, the side next the wall; hence, to take the precedence.  “I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.” --Shak.
 Wall barley Bot., a kind of grass (Hordeum murinum) much resembling barley; squirrel grass.  See under Squirrel.
 Wall box. Mach. See Wall frame, below.
 Wall creeper Zool., a small bright-colored bird (Tichodroma muraria) native of Asia and Southern Europe. It climbs about over old walls and cliffs in search of insects and spiders. Its body is ash-gray above, the wing coverts are carmine-red, the primary quills are mostly red at the base and black distally, some of them with white spots, and the tail is blackish. Called also spider catcher.
 Wall cress Bot., a name given to several low cruciferous herbs, especially to the mouse-ear cress.  See under Mouse-ear.
 Wall frame Mach., a frame set in a wall to receive a pillow block or bearing for a shaft passing through the wall; -- called also wall box.
 Wall fruit, fruit borne by trees trained against a wall.
 Wall gecko Zool., any one of several species of Old World geckos which live in or about buildings and run over the vertical surfaces of walls, to which they cling by means of suckers on the feet.
 Wall lizard Zool., a common European lizard (Lacerta muralis) which frequents houses, and lives in the chinks and crevices of walls; -- called also wall newt.
 Wall louse, a wood louse.
 Wall moss Bot., any species of moss growing on walls.
 Wall newt Zool., the wall lizard. --Shak.
 Wall paper, paper for covering the walls of rooms; paper hangings.
 Wall pellitory Bot., a European plant (Parictaria officinalis) growing on old walls, and formerly esteemed medicinal.
 Wall pennywort Bot., a plant (Cotyledon Umbilicus) having rounded fleshy leaves. It is found on walls in Western Europe.
 Wall pepper Bot., a low mosslike plant (Sedum acre) with small fleshy leaves having a pungent taste and bearing yellow flowers. It is common on walls and rocks in Europe, and is sometimes seen in America.
 Wall pie Bot., a kind of fern; wall rue.
 Wall piece, a gun planted on a wall. --H. L. Scott.
 Wall plate Arch., a piece of timber placed horizontally upon a wall, and supporting posts, joists, and the like.  See Illust. of Roof.
 Wall rock, granular limestone used in building walls. [U. S.] --Bartlett.
 Wall rue Bot., a species of small fern (Asplenium Ruta-muraria) growing on walls, rocks, and the like.
 Wall spring, a spring of water issuing from stratified rocks.
 Wall tent, a tent with upright cloth sides corresponding to the walls of a house.
 Wall wasp Zool., a common European solitary wasp (Odynerus parietus) which makes its nest in the crevices of walls.

 Creep·ing Char·lie. The stonecrop (Sedum acre).
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 Sedum acre
      n : mossy European creeping sedum with yellow flowers; widely
          introduced as a ground cover [syn: wall pepper]