Jerk-water
adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A branch line train, using light equipment derogatory
"The mail was brought by a tiny "jerk-water" bobtail dummy and coach run by one, Tony, from Pearl City, a mile away, to a station near the end of the peninsula."
- 1 Of an inhabited place, small, isolated, backward. US, colloquial, derogatory
"That seems to disappoint them, for every sociologist likes to go back to some jerk-water college and tell those who are in the sociological class how they had to get their information by pantomime.""
- 2 Railroads with low traffic. US, colloquial, derogatory
"He had risen to the head of the greatest street car system in the world from the position of brakeman on a jerk-water railroad."
Example
More examples"The mail was brought by a tiny "jerk-water" bobtail dummy and coach run by one, Tony, from Pearl City, a mile away, to a station near the end of the peninsula."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.