jack, a coat of quilted or plated leather, a coat of defence. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 166; ‘His golden-plated Iacke’, Twyne, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 314.
jack, a drinking-measure, pot; said to contain half a pint. Taming Shrew, iv. 1. 51; Tusser, Husbandry, § 85. 10.
jackman; see [jarkman].
jack merlin, a male merlin or hawk. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1. 13.
Jacob’s staff; ‘A pilgrim’s staff, so called from those who go on pilgrimage to the city of St. Iago, or St. James Compostella in Spain’, Blount, Glossographia; with reference to Gen. xxxii. 10, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; a cross-staff, an instrument for measuring heights and distances, Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Techelles); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, ii. 1 (Brisac); Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 786; used by astrologers and astronomers, Marmyon’s Fine Companion (Nares).
jaculation, a hurling. Milton, P. L. vi. 665. L. jaculatio.
jade, to over-drive, to pursue to weariness; ‘It is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say, to Iade anything too farre’, Bacon, Essay 32; ‘The ne’er-yet beaten horse of Parthia We have jaded out o’ th’ field’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 1. 34. From ‘jade’, a contemptuous term for a horse; Scot. jaud; Norm. F. *jaude, Icel. jalda, a mare; cp. Scot. yaud, an old worn-out horse, see EDD. (s.v. Jade).
jambeux, leggings, armour for the legs. Dryden, Palamon and Arc., iii. 35; spelt giambeux, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29. ME. jambeux (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2065). See Dict. (s.v. Jamb).
Jane, a small silver coin of Genoa, introduced into England in Chaucer’s time. Phr. many a Jane (i.e. much money), Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 58 (borrowed from Chaucer, C. T. B. 1925). OF. Janne(s, Genoa.
jane, a twilled cotton cloth, a kind of fustian, ‘jean’; ‘Jane judgments’, coarse, common judgments, Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 8. Named from Genoa.