Word.ws English Dictionary

jack-in-the-boxes

jack-in-the-boxes is the plural of jack-in-the-box.

Meaning of jack-in-the-box

Noun

jack-in-the-box (plural jacks-in-boxes or jacks-in-the-boxes or jack-in-the-boxes or jacks-in-the-box)

  1. Children’s toy consisting of a small box from which a male figure pops out unexpectedly after some turnings of a crank.
    • "Did you venture to call me a liar?" ("No, sir, no!" shouted the accused, and disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box.)1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
  2. (historical) A small but powerful kind of screw, used by burglars to break open safes.
    • It was possible, from underneath, to use the old jack-in-the-box safe-breaker's tool which lay in his gasman's bag.2013, Donald Thomas, The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes
  3. (obsolete) A con-man who deceived tradesmen by substituting empty boxes for others full of money.

Questions about jack-in-the-boxes

What is jack-in-the-boxes the plural of?
Jack-in-the-boxes is the plural of jack-in-the-box.

Words near jack-in-the-boxes in the dictionary

  1. jack-in-a-boxes
  2. jack-in-office
  3. jack-in-the-box
  4. jack-in-the-box effect
  5. jack-in-the-box effects
  6. jack-in-the-boxes
  7. jack-in-the-bush
  8. jack-in-the-pulpit
  9. jack-in-the-pulpits
  10. Jack-in-the-water
  11. Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jack-in-the-boxes (page history and authors); jack-in-the-box (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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