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skipjack

[skip-jak]
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noun, plural (especially collectively) skip·jack, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) skip·jacks for 1; skip·jacks for 2, 3.
  1. any of various fishes that leap above the surface of the water, as a tuna, Euthynnus pelamis, or the bonito.
  2. Entomology. click beetle.
  3. Nautical. an American one-masted sailing vessel.
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Origin of skipjack

First recorded in 1545–55; skip1 + jack1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for skipjack

Historical Examples

  • In the big barn doorway the Skipjack and Willie Ramsey appeared.

    Back o' the Moon

    Oliver Onions

  • Congratulate the Skipjack, with just a hint that he might have looked higher.

  • "And comes for it like the cattle to the scrubbing-stones," said the Skipjack.

    Magnum Bonum

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • "Yet the Skipjack seemed the most improbable one of all," said his mother.

    Magnum Bonum

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • "If I thought it was the Skipjack element," she said, smiling.

    Magnum Bonum

    Charlotte M. Yonge

British Dictionary definitions for skipjack

skipjack

noun plural -jack or -jacks
  1. Also called: skipjack tuna an important food fish, Katsuwonus pelamis, that has a striped abdomen and occurs in all tropical seas: family Scombridae (mackerels and tunas)
  2. black skipjack a small spotted tuna, Euthynnus yaito, of Indo-Pacific seas
  3. any of several other unrelated fishes, such as the alewife and bonito
  4. nautical an American sloop used for oystering and as a yacht
  5. another name for a click beetle
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Word Origin

C18: from skip 1 + jack 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for skipjack

n.

1550s, "a pert shallow-brained fellow; a puppy, a whipper-snapper; a conceited fop or dandy" [OED], from skip (v.) + generic name jack (n.). Applied 1703 to tropical fishes with leaping tendencies. In reference to a kind of sailing boat used on Chesapeake Bay, attested from 1887.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper