jack boy

Noun

jack boy (plural jack boys)

1. (slang, Christ's Hospital) A low-ranking employee who is responsible for dispensing drinks to the other workers.
   • As the last order are destined to be jack boys, and to other inferior offices, so the first are monitors of the ward, whose province it is to walk up and down the table in the hall, at meals, during the time service is performing, and to take care that the others do not play nor talk, but attend to...1923, Edmund Blunden, Christ's Hospital: A Retrospect, page 68
   • Perhaps the most worrying trade was that of jack boy. This genius presided over the fulness and emptiness of a certain huge vessel which supplied our mugs' with water at dinner time, and was compelled to sit at the very end of the table in order that the 'jack' might be safely accommodated.1958, The Christ's Hospital Book, page 207
2. (obsolete, slang) A boy or young man who is hired to run errands and perform unskilled labor.
   • The only fault I find at Moberly is that they are mighty shy of “jack boys;" that is the fault all along the Wabash, only more so at Moberly, but I have assurance from the Officials that this will be taken care of in the near future.1915, The Railroad Worker - Volume 12, page 41
   • The jack boys and canvas pickers are to be under the jurisdiction of the union, with this express provision. That these two sections are not to be under the agreed scale for trimmers, but are to be subject to a special scale of wages, which scale is to be subject to the decision of the board of...1919, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Education and Labor, Social and Industrial Conditions in the United States, page 157