jerk-water

jerk-water noun: a branch line train, using light equipment.

Noun

jerk-water (plural jerk-waters)

(derogatory) A branch line train, using light equipment
- The mail was brought by a tiny "jerk-water" bobtail dummy and coach run by one, Tony, from Pearl City, a mile away, to a station near the end of the peninsula.1918, Charmian London, Jack London and Hawaii, page 19

jerk-water (comparative more jerk-water, superlative most jerk-water)

(US, colloquial, derogatory) Of an inhabited place, small, isolated, backward.
- That seems to disappoint them, for every sociologist likes to go back to some jerk-water college and tell those who are in the sociological class how they had to get their information by pantomime."1907, Charles Stelzle, Christianity's Storm Centre: A Study of the Modern City, page 103
(US, colloquial, derogatory) Railroads with low traffic.
- He had risen to the head of the greatest street car system in the world from the position of brakeman on a jerk-water railroad.1915, Daniel Jacob Hauer, The Economics of Contracting: A Treatise for Contractors, Engineers […], volume II, page 212
- Can the keen-minded Mr. Willard at Baltimore be more anxious than the keen-minded Mr. Rea at Philadelphia to undertake the management of jerk-water branches in Connecticut or in Rhode Island or down on Cape Cod ?1922, Edward Hungerford, Our Railroads To-morrow, page 297

What does jerk-water mean?: Jerk-water means a branch line train, using light equipment.
What part of speech is jerk-water?: Jerk-water can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of jerk-water?: The plural of jerk-water is jerk-waters.

Adapted from Wiktionary: jerk-water (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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