jig

plural jigs

1. entertainmentA light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
2. IrishtraditionaldanceA lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.

   They danced a jig.

   1 more example

   Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.

   2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph

3. traditional English Morris danceA dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
4. fishingA type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.

   They were waked out of their bunks one black night by yells of "Squid O!" from Salters, and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his squid-jig—a piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half-opened umbrella ribs.

   1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous

5. A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.

   Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.

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   The bodywork employs, where possible, the same constructional methods as for the standard B.R. coaching stock, in order to utilise existing jigs and press tools.

   1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125

   The craze for realism now led the toy manufacturers to try to make their models from still secret plans for the new cars. Should a car firm scrap its plans and jigs, the toy firm had to follow suit.

   1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 90

   I used a doweling jig to drill the holes in the legs before assembly.

   2026 August 28, Collin Knoff, “Mid-Century Modern Table”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 50

6. businessAn apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
7. obsoleteA light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.

   A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme / Praised and applauded by a clamorous chime.

   1647, John Fletcher, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn

8. obsoleteA trick; a prank.

   This Innovation? Is't not a fine Jigg? / A precious cunning in the late Protector / To shuffle a new Prince into the State.

   1635, James Shirley, The Coronation

present singular third person jigs · participle present jigging · participle past jigged · past jigged

1. To move briskly, especially as a dance.

   The guests were jigging around on the dance floor.

2. To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.

   the candle-flame stretched itself tall, and began jigging up and down.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

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   […]and the fin would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all.

   1893, Rudyard Kipling, The White Seal

3. fishingTo fish with a jig.
4. To sing to the tune of a jig.

   No, my complete master, but to jig off a tune at the tongue’s end, canary to it with your feet, humor it with turning up your eyelids,

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

5. To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.

   Make thy moan to ballad singers and rhymers ; they'll jig out thy wretchedness and abominations to new tunes

   1633, Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], Loues Sacrifice. A Tragedie […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Hugh Beeston, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

6. businessTo sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
7. To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.
8. To skip school or be truant.

plural jigs

1. USdatedethnicoffensiveslangslurA black person.

   “You got a new jig, huh?” The boy looked out at Jones through his swirls of oiled hair. “What happened to the last one? He die or something?”

   1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN

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   This type of pickpocket, it should be noted, is passing from the scene; most class cannons now operating are old-timers. “The only youngsters I see breaking in on the whiz are jigs, and they are coining a bebop lingo that is something. […]

   2003, David W. Maurer, Whiz Mob, page 40

   “…Lucky for me he wasn’t a jig, otherwise I couldn’t have done it.” “Jig?” “Nigger. Afro American.” His voice was heavy with sarcasm.

   2011, Andrew Lithgow, Retribution, →ISBN, page 228

1. World War II era; joint US/RAF; World War II era; joint US/RAFradiotelephony clear-code word for the letter J.

   Synonyms: Juliett