juke
/d͡ʒuːk/
juke noun: a roadside cafe or bar, especially one with dancing and sometimes prostitution. Also the clipping of jukebox.
Noun (1)
juke (countable and uncountable, plural jukes)
- A roadside cafe or bar, especially one with dancing and sometimes prostitution.
- A genre of electronic music native to Chicago, noted for its fast, abstract rhythms; see footwork.
- All Kouichi Furutono wanted to do was expose Japanese audiences to the skittering sounds of Chicago juke music.2018 October 5, Patrick St. Michel, “The Inventive World of Japan’s Juke and Footwork Scene”, in Bandcamp Daily
Verb (1)
juke (third-person singular simple present jukes, present participle juking, simple past and past participle juked)
- To play dance music, or to dance, in a juke.
- ‘Let's jouk’ is an invitation to dance, but ‘Let's go joukin’’ is a request for a date.1941 December, Arthur K. Moore, “Jouk”, in American Speech, page 319
- I want you to go juking with me... that's riding and stopping to drink and dance1958, Tennessee Williams, Orpheus Descending, New York: New Directions, →OCLC
Verb (2)
juke (third-person singular simple present jukes, present participle juking, simple past and past participle juked)
- To hit.
- To stab.
- "None of the Latinos liked him."
"So now he's dead."
"So go talk to the other ten thousand people could've juked him."1992, Ed McBain, Kiss - On the internet that night Asghar told a friend: "I'll bang him and then f*** it man, might as well juke [stab] him up tomorrow."2007 February 9, “Teenager filmed by friend as he stabbed 16-year-old student to death”, in Mail Online
- "None of the Latinos liked him."
- To thrust with the pelvis, in particular for sexual intercourse.
- Got a ratchet lil bitch and she from Inglewood
I'm moving around, I do nothing but jugg
I'm fucking these ho like a young nigga should
And you'd do the same if you young niggas could2018, “Musty” (track 13), in Ohgeesy (lyrics), Shoreline Mafia (music), ShorelineDoThatShit (Rerelease) - Still pushing Zs and I don’t mean freezing
I am still jugging
The stripper so hugging
The girl still super-bad, missed them a loving2022 January 4, “Still”, YR (lyrics), P110, 0:49
- Got a ratchet lil bitch and she from Inglewood
Verb (3)
juke (third-person singular simple present jukes, present participle juking, simple past and past participle juked)
- To deceive or outmaneuver someone using a feint, especially in American football or soccer.
- Turning the Vikings'¯ blitz against them, Westbrook took a screen pass from Donovan McNabb, then juked and scooted 71 yards for a touchdown.2009 January 5, Pat Borzi, “Eagles Elude Vikings, but Giants Stand in the Way”, in New York Times
- Just before the Hongqi closed to within range of its proximity fuse, Vandal juked hard left and kicked in his afterburners. The first missile sped by without detonating. Vandal juked hard left again, completing a 180-degree turn.2015, Rick Campbell, Empire Rising
- To deceive or outmaneuver, using a feint.
- The runner juked Connor, the runner juked Smith, and Severin centered on him; he was five yards out, he screamed, he was a yard out, he screamed, he hit the kid so hard that both of their helmets flew off their heads.2008, Anthony Swofford, Exit A
- He juked Judd out of his shoes, reversed his field, juked Tony, juked Nick, and pretty much juked the entire Bobcats kickoff team on the way to a seventy-two yard return for a touchdown.2015, Peter Guy George, The Tony Crowne Mysteries Box Set: Books 1-3
- To bend the neck; to bow or duck the head.
- The Money-Merchant, I warrant ye, was ſo Proud of his Truſt, and of his Bell, that he went Juking and Toſſing of his Head, and Tabring with his Feet all the way, as if no Ground would hold him.1692, Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Æsop and other eminent mythologists with morals and reflexions, London: R. Sare [et alia], →OCLC, Two Laden Asses
- To manipulate deceptively.
- The pilot instinctively juked the nimble chopper, but with so many bullets in the air, and so many of them spreading far from their intended target, it was impossible to evade them all.2010, Clive Cussler, Jack Du Brul, The Silent Sea
- Veteran pilots “juked” their bombers to throw off the gunners' aim.2012, Dennis E. Showalter, Harold C. Deutsch, If the Allies Had Fallen: Sixty Alternate Scenarios of World War II, page 84
- To interrupt a conversation with an unrelated topic.
- Smith likes juking religion when talking with his family at dinner.
Noun (2)
juke (plural jukes)
Also used as
juke is also the clipping of jukebox.
Examples of juke in a sentence
- He beat me up a couple of times, and I got scared, so one night when he started up again, I just juked him.2012, Russell Banks, Book of Jamaica:
- As Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski knows, there's another problem with treating good stats as good work: They can be juked.2013, David Bzdak, Joanna Crosby, Seth Vannatta, The Wire and Philosophy: This America, Man, page 75:
Synonyms of juke
23 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of juke
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | jukes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | jukes |
| present participle | juking |
| past participle | juked |
| past | juked |
| alternative form | jook |
| alternative form | jugg |
Origin of juke
From Gullah juke, jook, joog (“wicked, disorderly”) (compare Wolof and Bambara dzug (“unsavory”)).
Borrowed from Jamaican Creole jook.
Uncertain. Perhaps from Scots jouk, jowk, juke (“to elude, cheat; duck, skulk; bob, dodge”), palatalized variants of Scots deuk, douk, dowk (“to duck”). More at duck (verb).
Words formed from juke
Phrases with juke
Words that rhyme with juke
Questions about juke
- What does juke mean?
- Juke means a roadside cafe or bar, especially one with dancing and sometimes prostitution.
- How do you use juke in a sentence?
- He beat me up a couple of times, and I got scared, so one night when he started up again, I just juked him.
- What part of speech is juke?
- Juke can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce juke?
- Juke is pronounced /d͡ʒuːk/.
- What is the plural of juke?
- The plural of juke is jukes.
Words near juke in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: juke (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-juke.ogg.
Cite this entry: “juke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/juke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.