Word.ws English Dictionary

Jack-with-a-lantern

Jack-with-a-lantern is the archaic form of jack-o'-lantern.

Meaning of jack-o'-lantern

Noun

jack-o'-lantern (plural jack-o'-lanterns)

  1. A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. It is a symbol of Halloween.
    • He had a jocose jack-o'-lantern grin, big crooked nicotine-stained teeth, and a full droopy dark moustache and wiry whiskers hiding a weak chin. (attributive use)2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, page 218
    1. A similar item made from a turnip.
  2. (archaic) A will o' the wisp.
    • [Newspaper speculations] supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns to the future historian1871, James Russell Lowell, “My Study Windows”, in My Garden Acquaintance

Questions about Jack-with-a-lantern

What is Jack-with-a-lantern the archaic form of?
Jack-with-a-lantern is the archaic form of jack-o'-lantern.

Words near Jack-with-a-lantern in the dictionary

  1. jack-tar
  2. jack-up
  3. jack-up-the-orchard
  4. jack-ups
  5. jack-walk
  6. Jack-with-a-lantern
  7. jackable
  8. jackaburra
  9. jackaburras
  10. jackaclock
  11. Jackadgery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Jack-with-a-lantern (page history and authors); jack-o'-lantern (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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Cite this entry: “Jack-with-a-lantern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jack-with-a-lantern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.