Definition of "jerk"

jerk¹

/d͡ʒɜːk/

noun
plural jerks
1. A sudden, often uncontrolled movement, especially of the body.
  Quotations
  The black cloth bestrewn with white beads blew up from time to time, laying bare the coffin. The tired bearers walked more slowly, and it advanced with constant jerks, like a boat that pitches with every wave.
  1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  A barrel-organ in the street suddenly sprang with a jerk into a jovial tune.
  1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, page 114
2. A quick tug or shake.
3. (originally Canada, US, slang, derogatory) A person with unlikable or obnoxious qualities and behavior, typically mean, self-centered, or disagreeable; an arsehole.
  Quotations
  Oh, Raymond―don't be such a jerk. Go and get yourself a drink or a tranquilizer or something.
  1962, George Axelrod, 1:23:39 from the start, in The Manchurian Candidate, spoken by Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury)
  Hey, Demon! The jerk store called, and they're all out of you!
  2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Halo
4. (US, slang, derogatory) A stupid person; an idiot or fool.
5. (weightlifting) A lift in which the weight is taken with a quick motion from shoulder height to a position above the head with arms fully extended and held there for a brief time.
6. (slang) An act of male masturbation.
7. (preceded by definite article) A dance, popular in Western culture in the 1960s, in which the head and upper body is thrown forwards regularly to the beat of the music.
  Quotations
  Girls, hey, what's that you're doingGirl, girl, what's that you're doingYou got to show me the steps to itSomehow, gonna learn how to do itDoing the jerkHey, do the jerkGirl, come on and workHey, do the jerk.
  1964, “The Jerk”, Don Julian (lyrics), performed by The Larks
8. (physics, engineering) The rate of change in acceleration with respect to time.
9. (US, obsolete) A soda jerk.
verb
third-person singular simple present jerks, present participle jerking, simple past and past participle jerked
1. (intransitive) To make a sudden uncontrolled movement.
  Quotations
  York came to me first, whilst the groom stood at Ginger's head. He drew my head back and fixed the rein so tight that it was almost intolerable; then he went to Ginger, who was impatiently jerking her head up and down against the bit, as was her way now.
  1877, Anna Sewell, “Chapter 23”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […]
2. (transitive) To give a quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
3. (US, slang, vulgar) To masturbate.
4. (obsolete) To beat, to hit.
5. (obsolete) To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.
6. (usually transitive, weightlifting) To lift using a jerk.
7. (obsolete) To flout with contempt.

jerk²

/d͡ʒɜːk/

noun
uncountable
1. (Caribbean, Jamaica) A rich, spicy Jamaican marinade.
  Quotations
  Sunshine ranks high in the island's greates burger debate, while the chicken egg rolls with mango chutney and jerk mayo and fabulous fish tacos elevate pub grub to an art.
  2016, Fodor's Essential Caribbean, Fodor's Travel
2. (Caribbean, Jamaica) Meat (or sometimes vegetables) cured by jerking, in which it is coated in spices and slow-cooked over a fire or grill traditionally composed of green pimento wood positioned over burning coals; charqui.
verb
third-person singular simple present jerks, present participle jerking, simple past and past participle jerked
1. To cure (meat) by cutting it into strips and drying it, originally in the sun.
  Quotations
  Snow stalled him in the timber; his food was all but gone when he managed to kill an antelope and jerk a supply of venison.
  1954, Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West, Houghton Mifflin, page 37
  The Lemakot in the north strangled widows and threw them into the cremation pyres of their dead husbands. If they defeated potential invaders the New Irish hanged the vanquished from banyan trees, flensed their windpipes, removed their heads, left their intestines to jerk in the sun.
  2011, Dominic Smith, Bright and Distant Shores, page 106
  This longtime West End eatery prepares chicken the way locals like it: curried, fried, jerked, and baked.
  2016, Fodor's Travel Guides, Fodor's Essential Caribbean, Fodor's Travel

Definition of "jerk"

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jerk2

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jerk²