jitney
Americannoun
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a small bus or car following a regular route along which it picks up and discharges passengers, originally charging each passenger five cents.
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Older Slang. a nickel; five-cent piece.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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a small bus that carries passengers for a low price, originally five cents
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slang a nickel; five cents
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of jitney
1900–05, of obscure origin; French jeton jetton is a phonetically implausible source
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:
Wave, a public jitney, runs routes all over the island and is free through the end of 2026.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
“When I was younger and couldn’t afford an actual vacation, I would bring my toddler on an adventure I called ‘the bus to the boat to the jitney to the beach,’ ” Coven said.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
Some are braving the trains; others the jitney.
From New York Times ● Jul. 24, 2020
This is the dramatic context for this jitney station, which is about to be boarded up by the city so that it can eventually be torn down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2019
The jitney, which is what rich people call the shuttle, goes up at seven, and I can drop the pieces off then.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
Because cabdrivers refused to go there, residents relied for decades on private jitneys to get around — cars that followed set routes through the community.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021
I couldn’t agree more with Brian Broome’s Nov. 9 Tuesday Opinion column, “So long, jitneys — and farewell to our connective tissue.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 12, 2021
Those agents, who drive pickup trucks, are different than the parking enforcement agents that ticket vehicles for meter violations and other offenses, who drive small vehicles sometimes called jitneys.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2018
Simultaneously serving as their kids’ drill masters, coaches, instructors, one-on-one opponents, hype men, financiers, advisers, protectors, bouncers, dietitians, jitneys, critics, vision boards, sponsors, and parents.
From Slate ● May 5, 2017
The day after Dee's success as a jitneur the paper came out with headlines that the jitneys were no longer within the law.
From Tripping with the Tucker Twins by Speed, Nell
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.
