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Jockey
Definitions
- 1 One who rides racehorses competitively.
- 2 someone employed to ride horses in horse races wordnet
- 3 That part of a variable resistor or potentiometer that rides over the resistance wire
- 4 an operator of some vehicle or machine or apparatus wordnet
- 5 An operator of some machinery or apparatus. in-compounds
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- 6 A dealer in horses; a horse trader. dated
"And the crime for which Nuncomar was about to die was regarded by them in much the same light in which the selling of an unsound horse, for a sound price, is regarded by a Yorkshire jockey."
- 7 A cheat; one given to sharp practice in trade. dated
- 8 A prostitute's client. UK, slang
- 9 A rapist. Ireland, slang
- 1 To ride (a horse) in a race.
- 2 ride a racehorse as a professional jockey wordnet
- 3 To jostle by riding against.
"They were jockeying for position toward the end of the race."
- 4 defeat someone through trickery or deceit wordnet
- 5 To maneuver (something) by skill; especially, to do so for one's advantage.
"They're all jockeying for promotion."
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- 6 compete (for an advantage or a position) wordnet
- 7 To cheat or trick.
"I've been jockeyed into doing work for which I get no credit."
Etymology
The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey. In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.
The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey. In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.
See also for "jockey"
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