JERKWATER Definition & Meaning

jerkwater

[ jurk-waw-ter, -wot-er ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

Informal. insignificant and out-of-the-way:
a jerkwater town.
(formerly) off the main line:
a jerkwater train.

noun

(formerly) a train not running on the main line.

jerkwater

/ ˈ��ɜː��ˌ��ɔː��ə /

adjective

slang.
inferior and insignificant
a jerkwater town

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of jerkwater¹

1875–80, Americanism; jerk ¹ + water; so called from the jerking (i.e., drawing) of water to fill buckets for supplying a steam locomotive

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of jerkwater¹

C19: originally referring to railway locomotives for which water was taken on in buckets from streams along the route

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

A lecturer at a jerkwater technical college in England, Wilt is condemned to teach classes like Meat One and Gasfitters Two to academically disinclined students.

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We were flying on top of a jerkwater railway, just missing the tops of the trees, when we bumped into a solid wall of fog.

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So I taught at one jerkwater college after another.

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He's never been out of a jerkwater burg in his life, hardly.

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They came from Chicago and jerkwater towns in Nebraska, from farms and steel mills, from the stage and the pulpit.

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