Word.ws English Dictionary

jump in

UK/d͡ʒʌmp ˈɪn/

jump in verb: to enter something quickly, usually a mode of transport.

Verb

jump in (third-person singular simple present jumps in, present participle jumping in, simple past and past participle jumped in)

  1. To enter something quickly, usually a mode of transport.
    • I jumped in the car, and we sped off to the meeting.
  2. To join in on an activity quickly.
  3. To interrupt someone while they are speaking.
  4. (US, slang) To initiate into an organization, usually a gang, with violence.
    • [Toothpick:] Been hanging with the homies in the hood for a while now / [Al Dog:] 'Bout time we jump your punk ass in / [Toothpick:] That's right. Let me tell you something in this world if you can't swim / [Al Dog:] You bound to drizzown / [Toothpick:] Yeah, and if you fall you better pick your...1996, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Phil Beauman, 53:46 from the start, in Paris Barclay, director, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, spoken by Toothpick and Al...
    • His [my cousin's] uncle was already in the gang. […] So, we go up to the guys, we didn't even know how to ask, kinda like "Hey, uh, can we get jumped in?" And they're like, "Yeah, come on." And all I remember is I landed on the ground and he [one of the gang members] got on top of me and boom! I...2018, Katie Galloway, 25:31 from the start, in Katie Galloway, director, The Pushouts (DVD), spoken by self (Victor Rios), Curious Matters; Cam Bay Productions
    Synonyms:
    haze
    Antonyms:
    jump out
  5. (Uno) To play a card that matches the top card in the discard pile out of turn.
    • With +2, you build on them /add them together in a similar way, but you can only jump in if you have the same color +2, OR if the player whose turn it is has a +2 of any color, he can play it, since it is his turn and he is not jumping in on anyone. […] The wilds can be jumped in on by any wild.2021 September 24, Nicolas Carter, BoardGameGeek
  6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see jump, in.
    • Cathy led the pig down to the pen. “Don’t jump in the mud,” she said. But a pig is a pig. It jumped in the mud.1976, J. R. Linn, Dorothy Donaldson, Anne Saunders, Mabel Bruce, Jean Ellis, Janet Trischuk, Magic Letters, revised edition, Toronto, Ont.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited, →ISBN, page...
    • From the way you skip and jump in the air when excited.1996, Stephen Fry, “Making Friends: The History Muse”, in Making History, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 32
  7. (dated, slang) To ambush (someone).

Synonyms of jump in

Antonyms

Forms of jump in

third-person singular presentjumps in
present participlejumping in
past participlejumped in
pastjumped in

Origin of jump in

For the US slang sense, compare jump (“attack suddenly and violently”).

Questions about jump in

What does jump in mean?
Jump in means to enter something quickly, usually a mode of transport.
What part of speech is jump in?
Jump in is a verb.
How do you pronounce jump in?
Jump in is pronounced /d͡ʒʌmp ˈɪn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of jump in?
The past tense of jump in is jumped in.

Words near jump in in the dictionary

  1. jump hosts
  2. jump hump
  3. jump humped
  4. jump humping
  5. jump humps
  6. jump in
  7. jump in one's skin
  8. jump in with both feet
  9. jump into action
  10. jump jet
  11. jump jets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jump in (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.

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Cite this entry: “jump in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jump_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.