jerkin

Noun

jerkin (plural jerkins)

1. (historical) A type of men's garment popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: a close-fitting collarless jacket, with or without sleeves.
   • [T]wenty yeomen, two and two, / In hosen black, and jerkins blue, / With falcons broider'd on each breast, / Attended on their lord's behest.1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto First. The Castle.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William...
   • [T]he people all wore hosen and shoon and smocks and jupes and jerkins and wimples.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 55
2. A sleeveless jacket, usually leather; a long waistcoat.
   • A tall and very good-looking kid in a jerkin came out of the store and rode the coupé off around the corner and came back walking, his glistening black hair plastered with rain.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 32
   • I booked a room at the small hotel and deposited my luggage there. I bought myself strong boots, a pair of breeches, a jerkin, and a couple of shirts. Then I turned my back upon the town and climbed.1952, Daphne Du Maurier, “Monte Verità”, in The Apple Tree