jack-up

[ jak-uhp ]

nounInformal.
  1. an increase or rise: a recent jack-up in prices.

Origin of jack-up

1
1900–05, Americanism; noun use of verb phrase jack up

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use jack-up in a sentence

  • It did not take Uncle Toby long to jack up the car, take off the tire, put in a new tube, and be ready to start again.

  • If we jack up that bonetrepannin, he called it toohis brainsd git to be like anybody elses.

  • I think I'll jack up our boys in the city room by hinting that there may be a shake-up coming under the new owner.

    The Clarion | Samuel Hopkins Adams
  • You can jack up the back part of an automobile when you could not possibly lift it up.

    Common Science | Carleton W. Washburne
  • If we jack up that bone'—trepannin', he called it too—'his brains'd git to be like anybody else's.'

British Dictionary definitions for jack up

jack up

verb(adverb)
  1. (tr) to increase (prices, salaries, etc)

  2. (tr) to raise an object, such as a car, with or as with a jack

  1. (intr) slang to inject oneself with a drug, usually heroin

  2. (intr) Australian informal to refuse to comply; rebel, esp collectively

  3. NZ informal to initiate, organize, or procure

nounjack-up
  1. NZ something that has been contrived or achieved by dishonest means

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with jack-up

jack-up

Raise or increase, as in The cartel is jacking up oil prices again. This term alludes to the literal meaning of jack up, that is, “hoist with a jack.” [Colloquial; c. 1900]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.