Jack. - Horntip

- AB (or JOB), subs.
'
{,4
(colloquial Ameri-
-.N; ......_ 1 can).—A prod; a
.. poke ; a stab.
3.
i),'
.-- ' - 1872. C. D. WAR-
- '1.11_ _ -_,: NER, Backlog Stu-
dies, 279. ' Oh yes,
I have,' I cried, starting up and giving
the fire a JAB with the poker.
1884. Detroit Free Press, 3 May,
p. 5, col. 4. He gave each of the
Epistles a vicious JAB with the cancelling
stamp, and then tossed it into
the mail-bag.
Verb. (colloquial American).—
To handle harshly ; to hustle ;
to prod or poke ; to stab (with
a pointed weapon).
1868. Putnam' s Magazine, Sept.
(quoted by DE VERE). 'The Missouri
stoker pulls and JABS his plutonic monster
as an irate driver would regulate his
mule.'
1885. F. R. S -rocicroN, Rudder
Grange, iv. Shall we run on deck and
shoot him as he swims?' I cried. No,'
said the boarder, we'll get the boathook,
and JAB him if he tries:to climb up.'
1888. Denver ReAublican, 6 May.
When it [hair] don't twist easily she's
as like to JAB at it with her scissors and
shorten it herself as trust it to anybody
as knows how.
1889. Detroit Free Press, 5 Jan.
Moses JABBED at him and ran the umbrella
clean through him.
1890. Tit Bits, 26 April, p. 55,
col. 3. If you JAB that umbrella in my
eye again, you'll get a broken head !
JABBER, subs. (old colloquial).—
Chatter ; incoherent or inarticulate
and unintelligible speech (as a
foreign language heard by one
ignorant of it). See verb.
1706. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus,
I, v. 5. And stopp'd their bold presumptuous
labour, By unintelligible JAB-
BER.
1726. SWIFT, Gulliver's Travels,
Gulliver, to his cousin Sympson.' They
use a sort of JABBER and do not go
naked.
1827. JOHNSON, Eng. Diet. [Todd]
S.V. JABBER, garrulity. . . . Bishop
Fleetwood somewhere uses the word in
his works ; and it is still a colloquial term.
1854. Our Cruise in the Undine,
p. 35. The JABBER began. . . . and
almost distracted us.
1879. JAS. PAYN, Sfiirils
(Aunt by Marriage). When one considers
the packing, and the crossing the
Channel, and the JABBER upon the other
side of it, which not one in ten of us
understands and the tenth only imperfectly.
1888. BoLDREwooD, Robbery Under
Arms, viii. Is it French or Queensland
blacks' JABBER?
Verb. (old : now recognised).
See quots.
1543. BALE, Yet a Course, fol. 43, B.
Censynge, Latyne, JABBERINGE.
1690. B. E. Did. Cant, Crew, S.V.
JABBER, to Talk thick and fast, as great
Praters do, or to Chatter, like a Magpye.
1716. ADDISON, Tory Foxhunter,
[in Freeholder, No. 22, Mar. 5]. He
did not know what travelling was good
for but to teach a man to ride the great
horse, to JABBER French &c.
1725. New Cant. Dict., JABBER.