jigs

Noun

jig (plural jigs)

1. A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
2. (Irish, traditional) 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.
3. (traditional English Morris dance) A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
4. 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
5. 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.
6. An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.

See all 18 meanings of jig