Meanings
plural jerkwaters
- UShistoricalA train on a branch line.
[…] by bailing from near streams with buckets, (the brake-man called this operation jerking water) and from this the road gets its name of jerkwater road.
1975 Mar, Indiana Historical Society, Indiana Magazine of History, volume 71, number 1, page 355 - A jerkwater town.
1 more example
Twenty-five miles down the narrow arid highway, there is another town like Napoleon, a little smaller. And then twenty-five miles further, another. This chain of jerkwaters stretches for a lazy afternoon, until you finally encounter a cluster of people that almost resembles a modern civilization, with a movie theater and chain restaurants.
2016 April 19, Rex Sorgatz, “The Internet Really Has Changed Everything. Here’s the Proof.”, in Wired
comparative more jerkwater · superlative most jerkwater
- UScolloquialderogatoryOf an inhabited place, small, insignificant, and backward.
Synonyms: See: Thesaurus:remote place
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveOf an inhabited place, small, insignificant, and backward.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivesmall and remote and insignificant
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From jerk (“to move with a sudden movement”) + water. Refers to the need to supply the boilers of steam trains with water. In rural areas and small towns with no water tower, where the train did not stop, this was done by scooping ("jerking") water from a track pan. First appears c. 1852, in the Miami County Sentinel (Peru, Indiana).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Polish pociąg na linii bocznej, zabity deskami
- pociąg na linii boczneja train on a branch line
- zabity deskamiof an inhabited place, small, insignificant, backward
Russian ма́ленький, незначи́тельный
- ма́ленький (málenʹkij)of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, backward
- незначи́тельный (neznačítelʹnyj)of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, backward
Cite this entry
jerkwater. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jerkwater
“jerkwater.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jerkwater. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jerkwater,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jerkwater.
Source: jerkwater on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.