jack

ball the jack: seeball.

before you can say Jack Robinson very quickly or suddenly. informal

☞ This expression was in use in the late 18th century, but neither an early 19th-century popular song about Jack Robinson nor some mid-19th-century attempts to identify the eponymous Jack Robinson shed any light on its origins.

every man Jack each and every person. informal

☞ Jack is a pet name form of the forename John. It was sometimes used in informal American speech as a form of address to a man whose name you did not know, and as a generic name for any ordinary or working- class man.

I'm all right, Jack used to express or comment upon selfish complacency. informal

☞ I'm all right, Jack was (together with its more scabrous fuller form Fuck you, Jack, I'm all right) an early 20th-century catchphrase which became the title of a 1959 British film.

jack of all trades (and master of none) a person who can do many different types of work (but has special skill in none).

☞ Jack is used here to mean a 'general labourer' or 'odd-job man', a sense dating from the mid 19th century.

Jack the Lad a brash, cocky young man. British informal

☞This originated as the nickname of Jack Sheppard, an 18th-century thief.

2017Somerset County Gazette I was a bit of a Jack the Lad in my younger days.

on your Jack on your own. British informal

☞ This is an abbreviation of the rhyming slang expression on your Jack Jones.