[A variant of CHECKSTONE; perh. associated with JACK v.1] A small round pebble or stone; esp., in pl., a set of pebbles tossed up and caught in the game of dibs.
1814. Brackenridge, Jrnl. Voy. Missouri, in Views Louisiana, 251. The women … amuse themselves with a game something like jack-stones: five pebbles are tossed up in a small basket, with which they endeavor to catch them again as they fall.
1885. Truth, 28 May, 853/1. She had a passion for gathering jack-stones and forming mosaics with them in the garden.
