Jack the Ripper

British  

noun

1. an unidentified murderer who killed at least seven prostitutes in London's East End between August and November 1888

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Jack the Ripper Cultural  

1. A criminal in London in the late nineteenth century apparently responsible for several ghastly murders by slashing. His identity is unknown.

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Example Sentences

“Smog” is a turn-of-the-century portmanteau word mashing together “smoke” and “fog” to describe the sooty, sulfurous air of the London of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026

He was Jack the Ripper in “Time After Time” in 1979; two years later, in “Time Bandits,” his character was named simply Evil Genius.

From New York Times • Jul. 25, 2022

I also enjoyed a fair amount of history-focused nonfiction, starting with Richard Altick’s witty survey of 19th-century murder, “Victorian Studies in Scarlet,” followed by several document-based accounts of Jack the Ripper.

From Washington Post • Aug. 24, 2021

Nothing has ever been proven, of course, and there's virtually no real evidence, but there's still a subsection of conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Jack the Ripper wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

From Salon • Jul. 24, 2021

Now, thanks to Bertillon, the police could determine if a man claiming to be John Reynolds was actually Jack the Ripper.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day