jimmy
noun
a short crowbar.
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immy.
jimmy
1 American
[jim-ee]
/ ˈdʒɪm i /
noun
jimmies
plural
-
a short crowbar.
-
a large male crab, especially of Chesapeake Bay.
verb (used with object)
jimmies,
present (3rd person singular)
jimmied,
past participle, past
jimmying
present participle
jimmy
2
American
[jim-ee]
/ ˈdʒɪm i /
noun
Australian Slang.
jimmies
plural
Jimmy
3
American
[jim-ee]
/ ˈdʒɪm i /
Or
Jimmie
noun
Jimmy
1
British
/ ˈdʒɪmɪ /
noun
jimmy
2
British
/ ˈdʒɪmɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
jimmysimple
-
jimmiessimple
-
have jimmiedperfect
-
has jimmiedperfect
-
am jimmyingprogressive
-
are jimmyingprogressive
-
is jimmyingprogressive
-
have been jimmyingperfect progressive
-
has been jimmyingperfect progressive
Past
-
jimmiedsimple
-
had jimmiedperfect
-
was jimmyingprogressive
-
were jimmyingprogressive
-
had been jimmyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of jimmy1
1840–50; generic use of Jimmy; cf. jack 1
Origin of jimmy2
1835–45; rhyming slang; Jimmy (Grant), for immigrant
Explanation
To jimmy something is to force it open. If you lock yourself out, you can jimmy a window and climb inside your house. Or you could just use that key that's hidden under a rock by the door. A thief might jimmy a car door to steal its stereo, and if you accidentally paint your kitchen window shut, you may have to jimmy it open. The verb jimmy comes from the noun jimmy, or "short crow bar," the kind of tool you'd use to jimmy something. In the 1800s, this type of crowbar was popular with burglars.
Vocabulary lists containing jimmy
The Sword of Summer
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Every Falling Star
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The Last Cuentista
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A ground crew member had managed to jimmy the window open, passenger Matt Rexroad told FOX5SanDiego.com.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2023
It wasn’t really a cop show — or rather, it used that genre as a crowbar to jimmy open doors other cop shows didn’t enter: labor, education, media criticism.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2022
“Unfortunately, inside of our system in certain units, our detainees have the ability to jimmy their locks,” Edwards said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 17, 2021
“Imagine the idea of the American government convincing a foreign manufacturer to jimmy equipment in its favor,” the history says.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2020
Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs? jimmy snyder.
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
While large-scale competition shows are eligible for the state’s tax credit, such as Jimmy Kimmel’s “Schooled!” science experiment series for kids, other kinds of popular reality TV shows cannot apply for production incentives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Jimmy Eat World’s Adkins, Burch, drummer Zach Lind and guitarist Tom Linton earned recording money between tours by working construction, driving around car dealership customers and selling art supplies and auto parts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
“Either Jimmy Lai dies in jail or he is freed, likely on humanitarian or medical grounds,” Mr. Clifford says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
When I went to work at the Bush White House, Jimmy was thrilled—for my daughters, whom he viewed as incarnations of the American dream.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
“Then we’ll go see if he’s okay,” Jimmy said.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
She fashioned little carts of coke — the hard coal used to heat ore — using jimmies and dragées.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2022
As if under an enchantment, Allery wanders back to the plant, where he jimmies the lock and completes a day of work alone.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2020
The real deal is a pro-biotic, slightly sour dessert that no amount of jimmies can make palatable, at least to me.
From Time ● Aug. 3, 2010
Instead of a bushel, we’d shoot to catch a dozen or dozen and a half of good jimmies, enough for lunch.
From Washington Post
He jimmies it up a few inches but then immediately shuts it when he gets dust in his eye.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
In their video, posted Friday, the structure is jimmied into place under cover of darkness while one man shouts, “You can’t bring me down!”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2020
They peered at the famous door that was jimmied during the Watergate burglary.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 31, 2019
They quickly jimmied the door open, popped the trunk and rescued a Brazilian couple, boyfriend and girlfriend, who’d paid $20,000 a piece to be smuggled to New York.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 27, 2019
And the exposure of a secret romance feels jimmied into place.
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2019
He rose from the ripped sofa and walked to the window, which he jimmied until it screeched open.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
By now, Zhao’s at it again with the crowbar, jimmying our hearts open for one last tearjerk.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2025
But in jimmying the original into a more serious musical format as it proceeds, it achieves only a middling geniality.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2022
“I wasn’t really thinking about the fight at the time,” Forsyth said of his moments jimmying his way into the FBI office.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2021
He, then 19, was jimmying the driver’s side window with a coat hanger, having locked his keys inside.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2012
Nearly every afternoon, he commuted home to coach Louie, running alongside him, subduing the jimmying elbows and teaching him strategy.
From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
