Definition of "jerkiness"

[…] there was a good deal of jerkiness apparent in the motion of the car, especially when the wheels turned into the numerous ruts of the drive.

1879, Frank Frankfort Moore, chapter 1, in Daireen‎, volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 12

In 1900 Planck announced that radiant energy could only be propagated in tiny, indivisible bundles which he called quanta. Furthermore these bundles did not proceed through space continuously, but by jumps. It was not long before experimenters were finding this lumpiness and jerkiness everywhere.

1933 September 11, “Maxwell-Quantum Theory”, in Time

It was not going to be a serious flogging since ineptitude rather than criminality was being punished; and Shama moved about with a comic jerkiness, as though she knew she was only an actor in a farce and not, like Sumati at the house-blessing in The Chase, a figure of high tragedy.

1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 4

One reason why we get into difficulties in the public sector is the jerkiness with which this problem is dealt with. Teachers, or nurses, or bus drivers, or whoever it may be, are given a substantial rise. But then, for the next six or seven years no further increases are awarded to them and the Government suddenly wake up to the fact that these groups have fallen far behind everybody else.

1962, Hansard, Incomes Policy, 4 July, 1962

[…] the rhythmic pattern […] contains the typical features of a gigue. The tempo should be chosen accordingly; it should be fast enough to depict the jerkiness of the gregarious dance, but not so rushed as to render the intricate patterns of imitations as a simple technical show.

1993, Siglind Bruhn, J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier: In-Depth Analysis and Interpretation, Hong Kong: Mainter International, Volume IV, WTC II/21 in Bb major - Prelude, p. 137