Sekirov Dictionary

jerk-water

adjective 3
noun 1
jerk water verb 2
forms 8

adjective3

•
(informal, disapproving) Of an inhabited place, small, isolated, backward.
- That seems to disappoint them, for every sociologist likes to go back to some jerk-water college and tell those who are in the sociological class how they had to get their information by pantomime." — 1907
•
(informal, disapproving) Of inhabited places, small, insignificant, isolated, backwards
- But any way from the number of jerk water burgs we went through you would think we was on the Monon and the towns all looks so much like the other that […]. — 1920
•
(informal, disapproving) Railroads with low traffic.
- He had risen to the head of the greatest street car system in the world from the position of brakeman on a jerk-water railroad. — 1915

noun1

•
A branch line train, using light equipment
- The mail was brought by a tiny "jerk-water" bobtail dummy and coach run by one, Tony, from Pearl City, a mile away, to a station near the end of the peninsula. — 1918

jerk water verb2

•
(US) To fill a steam locomotive water tank manually from natural water supplies (a hypothetical process whose use has been discredited).
- The Santa Fe, called the Jerk Water route because they "jerked" water from ponds and wallows for the engine, still frayed out at the Kansas line. — 1954
•
(US, old-fashioned) To scoop water from a track pan mounted on the tracks directly into a steam engine's tank without stopping.
- The early, crude "jerk water" device applied by the New York Central is shown in figure 8.24. — 2001

forms

jerked water · jerking water · jerks water · jerk-waters · more jerk water · more jerk-water · most jerk water · most jerk-water

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