jack-knife
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.27 in modern English
29
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
noun
A semi-trailer truck accident in which the vehicle mimics the closing of a jack-knife.
Colloquial
noun
A game of skill played with a pocket knife in which participants try to throw or flip the knife to stick upright in the ground at specified points or areas.
noun
Example Sentences
- "He kept a jack-knife in his pocket for various tasks."
- "It took me hundreds of dives to master even the simple jackknife."
- "I have seen several jack-knives along that dangerous stretch of road."
- "Over at the stable, the men joke and drink whiskey, talk crops and play jack-knife […]"
- "The cat jackknifed in the air and landed gracefully on its feet."
- "There was a world inside that tall grass. You could plop yourself down in the middle of it with the scraggly stems against the back of your neck and the endless grasses rising up and jackknifing against the bigbluesky, and the ranch and all of its players would fade into a distant dream."