jackpot
- the chief prize or the cumulative stakes in a game or contest, as in bingo, a quiz contest, or a slot machine.
- Poker. a pot that accumulates until a player opens the betting with a pair of predetermined denomination, usually jacks or better.
- an outstanding reward or success.
- hit the jackpot, Informal.
- to achieve a sensational success; have sudden luck: The firm has hit the jackpot with its new line of computers.
- to win a jackpot.
Origin of jackpot
Examples from the Web for jackpot
Contemporary Examples of jackpot
In the meantime, he takes trips to Vegas, sometimes sleeping in his car or in movie theaters for weeks, hoping to hit the jackpot.
Just a few blocks down on Sixth Avenue in Birmingham, they hit the jackpot.
The jackpot hit when Matthew McConaughey read the script and said, “I want to do this.”
From tour guides to chefs, glass blowers to club owners, they each tout different talents to hit the jackpot.
Ganjapreneurs Flock to Colorado Following Marijuana LegalizationAbby Haglage, Caitlin Dickson
January 29, 2014
People who play slot machines are excited because they never know when pulling the lever will result in a jackpot.
Historical Examples of jackpot
When poker was played, beans were put in the jackpot instead of money.
A Gold Hunter's ExperienceChalkley J. Hambleton
They looked to me like a jackpot lot, but I couldn't be sure at that distance.
Oh, You Tex!William Macleod Raine
Did the preacher gent die, er did Brother Peyton jump the game, taking the jackpot with him?
David Lannarck, MidgetGeorge S. Harney
These editorials were vigorously rebutted by editors and columnists who as yet had not had a chance to try for the jackpot.
Mr. Chipfellow's JackpotDick Purcell
A faint heart may never win a fair lady, but five of them have won many a jackpot.
The New Pun BookThomas A. Brown and Thomas Joseph Carey
jackpot
- any large prize, kitty, or accumulated stake that may be won in gambling, such as a pool in poker that accumulates until the betting is opened with a pair of jacks or higher
- hit the jackpot
- to win a jackpot
- informalto achieve great success, esp through luck
Word Origin for jackpot
Word Origin and History for jackpot
also jack-pot, "big prize," 1944, from slot machine sense (1932), from obsolete poker sense (1881) of antes that begin when no player has a pair of jacks or better; from jack (n.) in the card-playing sense + pot (n.1). Earlier, in criminal slang, it meant "trouble," especially "an arrest" (1902).
The regular Draw-Poker game is usually varied by occasional Jack-Pots, which are played once in so many deals, or when all have refused to play, or when the player deals who holds the buck, a marker placed in the pool with every jack-pot. In a jack-pot each player puts up an equal stake and receives a hand. The pot must then be opened by a player holding a hand of the value of a pair of knaves (jacks) or better. If no player holds so valuable a hand the deal passes and each player adds a small sum to the pot or pool. When the pot is opened the opener does so by putting up any sum he chooses, within the limit, and his companions must pay in the same amount or "drop." They also possess the right to raise the opener. The new cards called for are then dealt and the opener starts the betting, the play proceeding as in the regular game. ["Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th ed., 1911, "Poker." The article notes "Jack-Pots were introduced about 1870."]
Idioms and Phrases with jackpot
jackpot
see hit the jackpot.