jacket definition

English

Etymology

From Middle French jacquet, diminutive of Old French jaque.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/
• (US)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  • (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒæk.ət/
• Hyphenation: jack‧et
• Rhymes: -ækɪt

Noun

jacket (plural jackets)

1. A piece of clothing worn on the upper body outside a shirt or blouse, often waist length to thigh length.
2. A piece of a person's suit, beside trousers and, sometimes, waistcoat; coat (US)
3. A protective or insulating cover for an object (e.g. a book, hot water tank, bullet.)
4. (slang) A police record.
   • 1995 September 13, Richard Price, Spike Lee, 00:27:05 from the start, in Clockers, spoken by Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; distributed by Universal Pictures:

     We got a crowd of black, white customers, out-of-state license plates, what have you. Somebody gonna check that out. They gonna drop a dime on me, call 911. And you know with my jacket I can't go back to jail.

   • 1995 September 13, Richard Price, Spike Lee, 00:43:50 from the start, in Clockers, spoken by Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; distributed by Universal Pictures:

     Yo's jacket shows possession with intent, possession of unlicensed firearm, and assault, for which he still owes three years.

   • 2014, Inherent Vice, 01:54:00:

     "I need to look up somebody's jacket."

5. (military) In ordnance, a strengthening band surrounding and reinforcing the tube in which the charge is fired.
6. The tough outer skin of a baked potato.

   Cook the potatoes in their jackets.

7. (Jamaica) A bastard child, in particular one whose father is unaware that they are not the child’s biological father.
8. (Appalachia) A vest(US); a waistcoat (UK)

Synonyms

• (piece of a person's suit): coat (US)
• (removable protective cover): sleeve

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

jacket (third-person singular simple present jackets, present participle jacketing, simple past and past participle jacketed)

1. To confine (someone) to a straitjacket. [from 18th c.]
   • 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, volume VII, Fragment:

     ‘None of your gab, I tell you! If you speak another word, I'll have you jacketed […] !’

2. (transitive) To enclose or encase in a jacket or other covering. [from 19th c.]
   • 1897, Alexander James Wallis-Tayler, Motor Cars Or Power-carriages for Common Roads‎^[1]:

     ...to...prevent...the loss of heat...there is also a layer of silicate cotton or slag wool. This latter material is also employed to jacket the chimney for a certain portion of its length.

Derived terms

• bad-jacket
• snitch-jacket

Translations