Also 6 gygger, 7 giger, 8 jiger, 8–9 gigger. [In some senses, agent-noun from JIG v.; the relationship of others is obscure.]
I. 1. One who ‘jigs’ or dances a jig. Also, in dial., An odd-looking person, a ‘guy.’ Cf. JIG sb. 7.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scoft, 168. Venus. … O how I’le trip it at thy wedding. Paris. Nay, you’r a jigger, we all know.
1825. Brockett, Jigger, an airy, swaggering person. ‘A comical jigger.’
1880. Jamieson’s Dict., Jigger, a term of reproach or disrespect.
II. 2. Naut. a. A small tackle consisting of a double and a single block and a fall, used for various purposes; esp. one used to hold on the cable when it is heaved into the ship.
1726. G. Roberts, Four Years Voy., 119. To enable the little Boy to hold on, I made him a Jigger with a Block fix’d to the Cable, and a Rope reev’d through it, so that having a double Purchase [etc.].
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), s.v., The jigger is … useful when the cable is either slippery with mud…, or when it is stiff and unwieldy.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxii. 66. The sails were furled with great care, the bunts triced up by jiggers.
1847. Key, Recov. H. M. S. Gorgon (1866), 28. Bousing the casks close to the ships side with a jigger.
b. A small sail: see quot. 1867.
1831. [implied in jigger-mast: see 8].
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Jigger,… a small sail rigged out on a mast and boom from the stern of a cutter, etc.
1894. Times, 1 June, 11/4. To steady her in the roll of the Atlantic a jigger was run up at the stern.
c. Short for rigger-mast: see 8.
1880. Times, 23 Oct., 5/4. She has four masts, the fore and main masts carrying yards, a large spread of fore and aft canvas being provided for the mizzenmast and the jigger.
d. A small vessel of the smack type furnished vith a ‘jigger’ sail: see b; a similar vessel used as a fishing-vessel on the N.E. coast of N. America.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Jigger.… A small fishing vessel. New England.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Jigger … 3 … e. A fishing vessel whose rig corresponds to that of a cutter, excepting a small mizzen in the stern.
1891. Times, 16 Oct., 9/6. The jigger Petril, of Port Bannatyne, with gravel, is supposed to have foundered, as she has not been heard of since leaving Blairmore.
3. Mining. a. One who dresses or ‘jigs’ ore; see JIG v. 5. b. An apparatus for dressing ore and separating it into layers of varying fineness; consisting wholly or essentially of a sieve, or a box with holes, which is shaken up and down in water, or into which water is forced.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 234–5. The jigger holds a coarse wire sieve … while another person throws the unclean Ore into the sieve, which the jigger dips into the water and shakes twice or thrice. Ibid., Gloss. s.v. Jigging, [The larger particles of ore] lie at the bottom of the Jigging-sieve or Jigger.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 499. The mining laboratory now contains … a little hand-jigger, a rotary pulverizer, and a fan-blower.
4. A contrivance for catching fish: = JIG sb. 6 c.
1815. Sporting Mag., XLV. 153. Cod lines and pouting, and jigger likewise.
1884. Weekly Scotsman, 23 Feb., 1/6. The method of capturing them [cuttle or squid] is known as jigging, the jigger consisting of a number of hooks radiating from a fixed center of lead. No bait is used. The jigger is lowered to the bottom where it is constantly kept moving up and down till the squid is felt upon it.
5. The name of numerous mechanical contrivances or devices, used in many trades and operations. Among these may be specified
a. Pottery. A horizontal lathe used in china-making. b. Mining. A hook or similar contrivance for attaching hutches or trams to a hauling rope, or for coupling them to each other. c. A loose chain used as a warehouse crane. d. A small roller, or a set of rollers fitted in a suspended oscillating frame, used for graining leather. e. A shoemaker’s tool for polishing the edge of the sole of a boot. f. A machine for hardening and condensing a felted fabric by repeated quick blows from rods, by a rapidly vibrating platen or platens, or by an intermittent rolling action. g. Billiards. A slang name for the supporting rest, used when the ball is too far off to be reached by the cue if rested on the hand. h. A cooper’s drawing-knife with a hollowing blade. (Knight, Dict. Mech.) i. A small street-railway car, drawn by one horse. U.S. j. A machine worked by electricity and indicating by means of a pointer dial the prices at which sales are made on ’change. U.S. k. Mint. ‘A small weight which it is necessary, in certain cases, to add to a given number of coins to make an exact pound in weight.’ (W. J. Hosking, Royal Mint.)
a. 1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 463. For forming saucers, and other small circular articles, there has been recently introduced a small vertical shaft, called a jigger, on the top of which is a turned head, suited to receive the mould on which the saucers, &c. are to be formed.
1881. Porcelain Works, Worcester, 21. The mould that gives the form to the face of the plate or saucer is fixed on a horizontal lathe called a jigger.
b. 1888. N. & Q., 7th ser. VI. 322/2. Jigger, an apparatus for attaching hutches to a haulage rope, which holds by twisting or biting the rope.
c. 1891. Labour Commission Gloss., Jigger boy, name given (at the Millwall Docks) to a boy working a jigger or loose chain. Ibid., s.v. Work, A jigger,… a loose chain worked not through the medium of a crane, but by hydraulic or steam power.
1900. Dundee Advert., 21 Aug., 5. An increased charge for the use of the hydraulic jiggers.
d. 1883. Haldane, Workshop Receipts, Ser. II. 374/1. A grain or polish is given to the leather, either by boarding or working under small pendulum rollers, called ‘jiggers,’ which are engraved either with grooves or with an imitation of grain.
e. 1850. J. Struthers, Poet. Wks., I. Autobiog. 38. A tool highly esteemed among them called a jigger.
g. 1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xli. (1879), 347. The young Cornet hid the long cue and the ‘jigger’ under the benches.
III. Various slang uses. (Possibly not related to the foregoing.)
6. A door.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 85. Dup the gygger … open the doore.
1659. Caterpillers anatomízed, Gigers jacked, locked doors.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Jigger, a door.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 314/1. Such men are always left outside the jigger (door) of the houses.
b. A prison or cell.
1896. Max Pemberton, Puritan’s Wife, xiii. 116. I would sooner have been in the gigger at Newgate.
7. An illicit distillery.
1824. Compl. Hist. Murder Mr. Weare, 241. He said, that Probert and these two persons were in the jigger at Gill’s-hill. Ibid., 251. I kept a private jigger there, and it was never discovered.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 387/1. They carry about their persons pint bladders of ‘stuff,’ or ‘jigger stuff’ (spirit made at an illicit still).
b. A drink of spirits, a dram. (U.S.)
1889. Lisbon (Dakota) Star, 15 Feb., 3/1. After giving him two small ‘jiggers’ the civilities were brought to an end.
1892. A. E. Lee, Hist. Columbus (Ohio), I. 335. The ‘jigger’ was a dram of less than a gill, taken [5 times a day].
IV. 8. attrib. and Comb., as jigger-block (see quot., and cf. sense 2 a); jigger-dubber (slang), a turnkey (cf. sense 6); jigger-mast Naut. (a) a small mast at the stern, on which a jigger (sense 2 b) is hoisted; (b) the aftermost mast of a four-masted merchant ship; jigger-pump, (a) a force-pump mounted on a portable stand and usually connected with a hose, used for watering flower-beds, etc.; (b) see quot.; jigger-tackle Naut. = sense 2 a; jigger-yard Naut., a yard on which the jigger (sense 2 b) is extended.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 107. If the strap be continued, so as to form a tail, at the end of the block which has no hook, the block is called a tail or *jigger block; and if a tackle have its moveable block so furnished, it is called a ‘jigger tackle.’
1781. G. Parker, View Soc., II. 69. *Jigger-dubber is a term applied to Jailors or Turnkeys.
1831. Capt. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, xxiv. This dow had a large mast forward, and a *gigger-mast aft.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., Explan. Terms 16. Jigger mast, a small mast at the stern, with a sail resembling a lug sail.
1879. Black, Macleod of D., xxxiv. 305. The red ensign clung to the jigger-mast.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 15 May, 7/2. Owing to the frightful rolling of the ship the steel masts gave way, all coming down, with the exception of the lower foremast, the mizen lower mast, the jigger lower mast and topmast, and the bowsprit.
1847–78. Halliwell, *Jigger-pump, a pump used in breweries to force beer into vats.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), *Jigger Tackle, a light … tackle, consisting of a double and single block.
1797. Gazetteer, in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799), I. 76. D—n me! if I would not get a jigger-tackle upon you.
1842. J. F. Cooper, Jack o’ Lantern, I. 182. Three fair, handsome flags rose to the end of the Fen-Follett’s *jigger yard.
