DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Union Jack
 聯合王國的國旗

 Jack n.
 1. A familiar nickname of, or substitute for, John.
    You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby.   --Shak.
 2. An impertinent or silly fellow; a simpleton; a boor; a clown; also, a servant; a rustic. “Jack fool.”
 Since every Jack became a gentleman,
 There 's many a gentle person made a Jack.   --Shak.
 3. A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also Jack tar, and Jack afloat.
 4. A mechanical contrivance, an auxiliary machine, or a subordinate part of a machine, rendering convenient service, and often supplying the place of a boy or attendant who was commonly called Jack; as: (a) A device to pull off boots. (b) A sawhorse or sawbuck. (c) A machine or contrivance for turning a spit; a smoke jack, or kitchen jack. (b) Mining A wooden wedge for separating rocks rent by blasting. (e) Knitting Machine A lever for depressing the sinkers which push the loops down on the needles. (f) Warping Machine A grating to separate and guide the threads; a heck box. (g) Spinning A machine for twisting the sliver as it leaves the carding machine. (h) A compact, portable machine for planing metal. (i) A machine for slicking or pebbling leather. (k) A system of gearing driven by a horse power, for multiplying speed. (l) A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught. (m) In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; -- called also hopper. (n) In hunting, the pan or frame holding the fuel of the torch used to attract game at night; also, the light itself.  --C. Hallock.
 5. A portable machine variously constructed, for exerting great pressure, or lifting or moving a heavy body such as an automobile through a small distance. It consists of a lever, screw, rack and pinion, hydraulic press, or any simple combination of mechanical powers, working in a compact pedestal or support and operated by a lever, crank, capstan bar, etc. The name is often given to a jackscrew, which is a kind of jack.
 6. The small bowl used as a mark in the game of bowls.
    Like an uninstructed bowler who thinks to attain the jack by delivering his bowl straight forward upon it.   --Sir W. Scott.
 7. The male of certain animals, as of the ass.
 8. Zool. (a) A young pike; a pickerel. (b) The jurel. (c) A large, California rock fish (Sebastodes paucispinus); -- called also boccaccio, and mérou. (d) The wall-eyed pike.
 9. A drinking measure holding half a pint; also, one holding a quarter of a pint. [Prov. Eng.]
 10. Naut. (a) A flag, containing only the union, without the fly, usually hoisted on a jack staff at the bowsprit cap; -- called also union jack. The American jack is a small blue flag, with a star for each State. (b) A bar of iron athwart ships at a topgallant masthead, to support a royal mast, and give spread to the royal shrouds; -- called also jack crosstree.
 11. The knave of a suit of playing cards.
 Note: ☞ Jack is used adjectively in various senses. It sometimes designates something cut short or diminished in size; as, a jack timber; a jack rafter; a jack arch, etc.
 Jack arch, an arch of the thickness of one brick.
 Jack back Brewing & Malt Vinegar Manuf., a cistern which receives the wort. See under 1st Back.
 Jack block Naut., a block fixed in the topgallant or royal rigging, used for raising and lowering light masts and spars.
 Jack boots, boots reaching above the knee; -- worn in the 17 century by soldiers; afterwards by fishermen, etc.
 Jack crosstree. Naut. See 10, b, above.
 Jack curlew Zool., the whimbrel.
 Jack frame. Cotton Spinning See 4 (g), above.
 Jack Frost, frost or cold weather personified as a mischievous person.
 Jack hare, a male hare. --Cowper.
 Jack lamp, a lamp for still hunting and camp use. See def. 4 (n.), above.
 Jack plane, a joiner's plane used for coarse work.
 Jack post, one of the posts which support the crank shaft of a deep-well-boring apparatus.
 Jack pot Poker Playing, the name given to the stakes, contributions to which are made by each player successively, till such a hand is turned as shall take the “pot,” which is the sum total of all the bets.  See also jackpot.
 Jack rabbit Zool., any one of several species of large American hares, having very large ears and long legs. The California species (Lepus Californicus), and that of Texas and New Mexico (Lepus callotis), have the tail black above, and the ears black at the tip. They do not become white in winter. The more northern prairie hare (Lepus campestris) has the upper side of the tail white, and in winter its fur becomes nearly white.
 Jack rafter Arch., in England, one of the shorter rafters used in constructing a hip or valley roof; in the United States, any secondary roof timber, as the common rafters resting on purlins in a trussed roof; also, one of the pieces simulating extended rafters, used under the eaves in some styles of building.
 Jack salmon Zool., the wall-eyed pike, or glasseye.
 Jack sauce, an impudent fellow. [Colloq. & Obs.]
 Jack shaft Mach., the first intermediate shaft, in a factory or mill, which receives power, through belts or gearing, from a prime mover, and transmits it, by the same means, to other intermediate shafts or to a line shaft.
 Jack sinker Knitting Mach., a thin iron plate operated by the jack to depress the loop of thread between two needles.
 Jack snipe. Zool. See in the Vocabulary.
 Jack staff Naut., a staff fixed on the bowsprit cap, upon which the jack is hoisted.
 Jack timber Arch., any timber, as a rafter, rib, or studding, which, being intercepted, is shorter than the others.
 Jack towel, a towel hung on a roller for common use.
 Jack truss Arch., in a hip roof, a minor truss used where the roof has not its full section.
 Jack tree. Bot. See 1st Jack, n.
 Jack yard Naut., a short spar to extend a topsail beyond the gaff.
 Blue jack, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.
 Hydraulic jack, a jack used for lifting, pulling, or forcing, consisting of a compact portable hydrostatic press, with its pump and a reservoir containing a supply of liquid, as oil.
 Jack-at-a-pinch. (a) One called upon to take the place of another in an emergency. (b) An itinerant parson who conducts an occasional service for a fee.
 Jack-at-all-trades, one who can turn his hand to any kind of work.
 Jack-by-the-hedge Bot., a plant of the genus Erysimum (Erysimum alliaria, or Alliaria officinalis), which grows under hedges. It bears a white flower and has a taste not unlike garlic. Called also, in England, sauce-alone. --Eng. Cyc.
 Jack-in-office, an insolent fellow in authority. --Wolcott.
 Jack-in-the-bush Bot., a tropical shrub with red fruit (Cordia Cylindrostachya).
 Jack-in-the-green, a chimney sweep inclosed in a framework of boughs, carried in Mayday processions.
 Jack-of-the-buttery Bot., the stonecrop (Sedum acre).
 Jack-of-the-clock, a figure, usually of a man, on old clocks, which struck the time on the bell.
 Jack-on-both-sides, one who is or tries to be neutral.
 Jack-out-of-office, one who has been in office and is turned out. --Shak.
 Jack the Giant Killer, the hero of a well-known nursery story.
 Yellow Jack Naut., the yellow fever; also, the quarantine flag. See Yellow flag, under Flag.

 Un·ion n.
 1. The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one, or the state of being united or joined; junction; coalition; combination.
 Note: ☞ Union differs from connection, as it implies that the bodies are in contact, without an inter░ening body; whereas things may be connected by the in░░░vention of a third body, as by a cord or chain.
 2. Agreement and conjunction of mind, spirit, will, affections, or the like; harmony; concord.
 3. That which is united, or made one; something formed by a combination or coalition of parts or members; a confederation; a consolidated body; a league; as, the weavers have formed a union; trades unions have become very numerous; the United States of America are often called the Union.
 4. A textile fabric composed of two or more materials, as cotton, silk, wool, etc., woven together.
 5. A large, fine pearl. [Obs.]
    If they [pearls] be white, great, round, smooth, and weighty . . . our dainties and delicates here at Rome . . . call them unions, as a man would say =\“singular,” and by themselves alone.\=   --Holland.
 In the cup an union shall he throw,
 Richer than that which four successive kings
 In Denmark's crown have worn.   --Shak.
 6. A device emblematic of union, used on a national flag or ensign, sometimes, as in the military standard of Great Britain, covering the whole field; sometimes, as in the flag of the United States, and the English naval and marine flag, occupying the upper inner corner, the rest of the flag being called the fly. Also, a flag having such a device; especially, the flag of Great Britain.
 Note: ☞ The union of the United States ensign is a cluster of white stars, denoting the union of the States, and, properly, equal in number to that of the States, displayed on a blue field; the fly being composed of alternate stripes of red and white. The union of the British ensign is the three crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick in combination, denoting the union of England, Scotland and Ireland, displayed on a blue field in the national banner used on shore, on a red, white, or blue field in naval ensigns, and with a white border or fly in the merchant service.
 7. Mach. A joint or other connection uniting parts of machinery, or the like, as the elastic pipe of a tender connecting it with the feed pipe of a locomotive engine; especially, a pipe fitting for connecting pipes, or pipes and fittings, in such a way as to facilitate disconnection.
 8. Brewing A cask suspended on trunnions, in which fermentation is carried on.
 Hypostatic union Theol. See under Hypostatic.
 Latin union. See under Latin.
 Legislative Union Eng. Hist., the union of Great Britain and Ireland, which took place Jan. 1, 1801.
 Union, or Act of Union Eng. Hist., the act by which Scotland was united to England, or by which the two kingdoms were incorporated into one, in 1707.
 Union by the first intention, or Union by the second intention. Surg. See To heal by the first intention, or To heal by the second intention, under Intention.
 Union down Naut., a signal of distress at sea made by reversing the flag, or turning its union downward.
 Union jack. Naut. See Jack, n., 10.
 Union joint. Mech. (a) A joint formed by means of a union. (b) A piece of pipe made in the form of the letter T.
 Syn: -- Unity; junction; connection; concord; alliance; coalition; combination; confederacy.
 Usage: -- Union, Unity. Union is the act of bringing two or more things together so as to make but one, or the state of being united into one. Unity is a state of simple oneness, either of essence, as the unity of God, or of action, feeling, etc., as unity of design, of affection, etc. Thus, we may speak of effecting a union of interests which shall result in a unity of labor and interest in securing a given object.
    One kingdom, joy, and union without end.   --Milton.
 [Man] is to . . . beget
 Like of his like, his image multiplied.
 In unity defective; which requires
 Collateral love, and dearest amity.   --Milton.
 ◄ ►

 Union Jack
      n : national flag of the United Kingdom [syn: Union flag]