jig
UK/d͡ʒɪɡ/
jig noun: a light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
Noun (1)
jig (plural jigs)
- A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
- A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.
- They danced a jig.
- Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph
- A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
- A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
- They were waked out of their bunks one black night by yells of "Squid O!" from Salters, and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his squid-jig—a piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half-opened umbrella ribs.1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous
- A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.
- Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.
- The bodywork employs, where possible, the same constructional methods as for the standard B.R. coaching stock, in order to utilise existing jigs and press tools.1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125
- An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
- A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
- A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme / Praised and applauded by a clamorous chime.1647, John Fletcher, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn
- A trick; a prank.
- This Innovation? Is't not a fine Jigg? / A precious cunning in the late Protector / To shuffle a new Prince into the State.1635, James Shirley, The Coronation
Verb
jig (third-person singular simple present jigs, present participle jigging, simple past and past participle jigged)
- To move briskly, especially as a dance.
- The guests were jigging around on the dance floor.
- To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.
- the candle-flame stretched itself tall, and began jigging up and down.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- […]and the fin would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all.1893, Rudyard Kipling, The White Seal
- To fish with a jig.
- To sing to the tune of a jig.
- No, my complete master, but to jig off a tune at the tongue’s end, canary to it with your feet, humor it with turning up your eyelids,c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.
- Make thy moan to ballad singers and rhymers ; they'll jig out thy wretchedness and abominations to new tunes1633, Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], Loues Sacrifice. A Tragedie […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Hugh Beeston, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
- To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.
- To skip school or be truant.
Noun (2)
jig (plural jigs)
- A black person.
- “You got a new jig, huh?” The boy looked out at Jones through his swirls of oiled hair. “What happened to the last one? He die or something?”1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN
- This type of pickpocket, it should be noted, is passing from the scene; most class cannons now operating are old-timers. “The only youngsters I see breaking in on the whiz are jigs, and they are coining a bebop lingo that is something. […]2003, David W. Maurer, Whiz Mob, page 40
Noun (3) capitalized: Jig
Jig
- radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter J.
- Synonyms:
- Juliett
jig meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
jig in Tamil
- கருவி நிலை நிறுத்தமைப்பு, துடிப்பான நடனம், மாற்கட்டை, பொறியிணைப்பு, வழியுறதி, வழியுறுதி
jig in Marathi
- जिग, जिग करण्यासाठी
jig in Urdu
- البیلا ناچ, جھٹکے والی حرکت, رقص مستانہ, تین تالا, توڑا
jig in Bengali
- দ্রুত তালের নাচ, দ্রুত নাচা, ঝাঁকি মেরে হাঁটা, উঠানামা করা
More languagesFewer languages
- jig in Telugu
- జిగ్, జీగ్
- jig in Malayalam
- ചടുലമായി ചലിക്കുക, ചടുലനാടൻനൃത്തം ചെയ്യുക, ദ്രുതഗതിയിൽ തെറിച്ചുനീങ്ങുക, മേലോട്ടും കീഴോട്ടും ചലിക്കുക
- jig in Kannada
- ಜಿಗ್
- jig in Punjabi
- ਜਿੱਗ, ਜੀਗ
- jig in Gujarati
- જિગ, જીગ, જીગ કરવા માટે
- jig in Odia
- ଜିଗ୍, ଜିଗ୍ |, ଜିଗ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
- jig in Nepali
- जिग, जिग गर्न
Examples of jig in a sentence
- Should a car firm scrap its plans and jigs, the toy firm had to follow suit.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 90:
- I used a doweling jig to drill the holes in the legs before assembly.2026 August, Collin Knoff, “Mid-Century Modern Table”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 50:
Synonyms of jig
Forms of jig
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | jigs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | jigs |
| present participle | jigging |
| past participle | jigged |
| past | jigged |
Origin of jig
Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.
Probably a clipping of jigaboo, of uncertain origin, perhaps an African/Bantu word. Alternatively, jigaboo may be derived from jig (“dance”).
Words formed from jig
Phrases with jig
Words that rhyme with jig
Questions about jig
- What does jig mean?
- Jig means a light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
- What is jig in Tamil?
- Jig in Tamil is கருவி நிலை நிறுத்தமைப்பு, துடிப்பான நடனம், மாற்கட்டை. See Jig meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use jig in a sentence?
- Should a car firm scrap its plans and jigs, the toy firm had to follow suit.
- What part of speech is jig?
- Jig can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce jig?
- Jig is pronounced /d͡ʒɪɡ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of jig?
- The plural of jig is jigs.
Words near jig in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jig (page history and authors); Jig (page history and authors); jig (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jig (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jig (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jig (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jig (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jig (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); jig (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jig (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jig (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jig (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jig (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-jig.ogg.
Cite this entry: “jig.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jig. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.