Word.ws English Dictionary

jacks-in-boxes

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

jacks-in-boxes is the plural of jack-in-a-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 jacks-in-boxes

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

Words near jacks-in-boxes in the dictionary

  1. jacks of spades
  2. jacks off
  3. jacks up
  4. Jacks-at-all-trades
  5. jacks-in-a-box
  6. jacks-in-boxes
  7. jacks-in-office
  8. jacks-in-the-box
  9. jacks-in-the-boxes
  10. Jacks-in-the-pulpit
  11. Jacks-in-the-water

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jacks-in-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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