Jerry

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jerry built

Shoddily constructed. Hyphenated if used before a noun. The origin of the term is unknown. You could tell house was jerry built. It looked like it would blow over in a strong wind! Yeah, you didn't fool Mom for a second with that jerry-built story you concocted.
See also: built, Jerry

jerry sneak

1. obsolete A man who has been thoroughly and continually dominated, intimidated, bullied, or browbeaten by his wife. Refers to a character in Samuel Foote's 1764 play The Mayor of Garratt. Lord Edgar used to be the most adventurous man I knew, but since getting married, he's become a real jerry sneak.
2. obsolete Someone who steals watches. I know that man—he's a jerry sneak who's stolen many a watch from my patrons!
See also: Jerry, sneak

Tom and Jerry

A spiced drink that contains liquor (usually rum) and is served hot. It is named for characters in the 19th-century novel Life in London (not the cartoon characters). I'm ordering a Tom and Jerry—what do you want to drink?
See also: and, Jerry, tom
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

jerry-built

mod. carelessly and awkwardly built. The lawyer’s case was jerry-built, but the jury bought it anyway.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

jerry built

Constructed in a cheap, ramshackle, or otherwise insubstantial fashion. Although the phrase is widely thought to have come from the British World War I slang term for “German,” it well antedates the 20th century. Some possibilities are an old English word for tumble, Jericho (as in Joshua causing the walls to come tumbling down).
See also: built, Jerry
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • jerry built
  • jerry-built
  • round robin
  • a round robin
  • eleventh hour
  • dooper
  • black market
  • a light touch
  • wiggy
  • first hand
References in classic literature
Only an hour before, Jerry had come down from the plantation house to the beach to see the Arangi depart.
Not long after he had learned to sprawl, Jerry had learned that.
So did Michael and Jerry. The four-months' old Patsy and Kathleen had gone into the cooking-pot at the barracks, and their puppy-soft skins had been destroyed in the fire.
Jerry of the Islands
'It wasn't long before I begin to notice a change in Jerry. He never had been what you'd call a champion catch-as-catch-can talker, but now he was silenter than ever.
He knew as well as I did what it would mean if Jerry was to lead home a blushing bride through that front door.
'I couldn't but admit that Jerry had picked one right from the top of the basket.
The Man Upstairs and Other Stories
Habit also struggled successfully against Jerry's increasing torpor.
And now and then one of them would look curiously at Jerry's fare.
Jerry's fare rose, and held out her numbered card simply:
The Four Million
Instead of responding to Jerry, Michael sniffed and glanced about in quest of Steward.
For so many years had Michael not run with another dog, that at first Jerry's invitation had little meaning to him.
Michael Brother of Jerry
"I'll do my very best," said Jerry heartily, "if you think you are well enough, sir," for he looked dreadfully white and ill.
The next minute Jerry was on the box; with a cheery chirrup to me, and a twitch of the rein that I well understood.
Black Beauty
Young Jerry relieved his father with dutiful interest, and reported No job in his absence.
This touched Young Jerry on a tender place; who adjured his mother to perform her first duty, and, whatever else she did or neglected, above all things to lay especial stress on the discharge of that maternal function so affectingly and delicately indicated by his other parent.
Tale Of Two Cities