[f. JIG v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb JIG.
1. The dancing of jigs; light, rapid, jerky movement, etc.: see JIG v. 1, 2.
1641. Milton, Reform., II. Wks. (1851). 48. That men should bee … pusht forward to gaming, jigging, wassailing, and mixt dancing is a horror to think.
1668. Etheredge, She wou’d if She cou’d, III. i. Wks. (1888), 164. The natural inclination they have to jigging will make them very ready to comply.
1806. Surr, Winter in Lond. (ed. 3), II. 207. Suggesting that such jigging and romping was inconsistent with the elegance that should distinguish the amusements of the higher orders.
1849. Thackeray, Lett., in Scribner’s Mag. (1887), I. 681/1. I … go out feeling deucedly lonely in the midst of the racketting and jigging.
b. Of a fish: = jiggering: see JIGGER v.1
1886. H. P. Wells, Amer. Salmon Fisherman, 152. Of all the performances of the salmon, none demoralizes me like jigging … a series of short heavy jerks to the line at intervals of 3 or 4 seconds.
2. In technical senses: see JIG v. 5–8.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., Gloss., Jigging, is a method of dressing the smaller Copper and Lead Ores by a peculiar motion of a wire sieve in a kieve or vat of water, where the smallest particles pass through the Jigging-sieve.
1865. Daily Tel., 18 April, 5/2. Machinery … has already been designed to execute one part of potters’ work, ‘jigging.’
1884. Weekly Scotsman, 23 Feb., 1/6. The method of capturing them is known as jigging, the jigger consisting of a number of hooks radiating from a fixed center of lead.
3. attrib. and Comb., as jigging-party (dial.), a dancing-party; jigging-machine, a machine for jigging (usually in sense 5 of the verb: = JIGGER sb.1 3 b), jigging-sieve, a sieve for jigging ore: see sense 2 above, quot. 1778.
1872. T. Hardy, Greenwood Tree, vii. [On Christmas-day night] a jigging party looks suspicious.
1884. West. Morn. News, 30 Aug., 1/6. Crusher, jigging machine and jiggers.
1890. Melbourne Argus, 29 May, 9/8. I recommend that some jigging machinery be put up at once, to concentrate ore now at grass for smelting.
