Jenny
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A device for spinning thread from fiber onto multiple spindles (also called spinning jenny).
- 2 A Wren (a member of the WRNS). UK, informal
- 3 female donkey wordnet
- 4 A female creature of certain kinds:; a female donkey
- 5 A Curtiss JN-4 airplane. slang
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 A female creature of certain kinds:; a female wren
- 7 Alternative letter-case form of jenny. alt-of
- 8 A female creature of certain kinds:; a female crab. Australia
- 9 A catmill.
- 10 In billiards and similar games, a powerful follow shot with plenty of topspin.
"Cream's potting had been extraordinary, extraordinary, I remember, said Goff. I never saw anything like it. We were watching breathless, as he set himself for a long thin jenny, with the black of all balls."
- 1 To wind finished lace onto cards ready for sale.
- 1 A female given name.
"Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in! Say I'm weary, say I'm sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me."
- 2 A surname.
"Mrs Wreford Brown died in 1946 and the house passed to Colonel and Mrs Jenny. […] From the Jennys it fell into the hands of developers and from them it passed to Colonel and Mrs Bryant and thence to us."
Example
More examples"Jenny could not ignore her parents' desire for her safety."
Etymology
Partially from generic use of the female given name Jenny (cf. Jane) and partially from informal pronunciations of engine.
From Jen + -y, historically as a hypochoristic form of Janet, Jane, etc. or (rarely) Eugenia, Virginia, etc. but now more often used as a diminutive of Jennifer. Doublet of Ivanka, Jan, Janelle, Janet, Janey, Janine, Jeanette, Jeanie, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jen, Jenna, Jenny, Jessie, Jo, Jody, Juanita, Shanae, Sinead, and Vanna in derivations from Jane etc. In senses related to inanimate objects, partially derived from the generic senses of Jane and partially an informal pronunciation of engine.
Related phrases
More for "jenny"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.