ratchet jack

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noun

a screw jack rotated by a ratchet mechanism.

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Question 1 of 8

On the farm, the feed for chicks is significantly different from the roosters’; ______ not even comparable.

Origin of ratchet jack

First recorded in 1870–75

Starting in the 1970s, then MPAA president Jack Valenti began what was to become a decades-long fight against the quota system.
Propaganda, Protest, and Poisonous Vipers: The Cinema War in Korea|Rich Goldstein|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Heinold's First and Last Chance, Oakland (Jack London, Taft) You can thank Johnny Heinold for your favorite Jack London book.
The Bars That Made America Great|Nina Strochlic|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Lawmaking by legislatures is also a one-way ratchet—Legislators get credit for passing laws, not pruning them.
Red Tape Is Strangling Good Samaritans|Philip K. Howard|December 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But not even the threat of death can suppress the urge to live vicariously through Jack Dawson and James Bond.
North Korea’s Secret Movie Bootleggers: How Western Films Make It Into the Hermit Kingdom|Lizzie Crocker|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST

As I size up the scene, Jack White now wears the crown … and he wears it well.
The Best Albums of 2014|Ted Gioia|December 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Strathland would bundle me out in ten minutes if anything happened to Jack.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
She is immensely rich, one of the ablest political women in London, and Jack is desperately in love with her.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
How on earth can Jack find time to think about women with the immense amount of work he gets through?
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
No, Jack is not much to look at, except when he wakes up—I have seen him quite transfigured on the platform.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
Little Jack Charmington, her husband, had a snug four hundred a year of his own, which quite sufficed for his modest needs.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills