skipjack

[skip-jak]

noun, plural (especially collectively) skip·jack, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) skip·jacks for 1; skip·jacks for 2, 3.

any of various fishes that leap above the surface of the water, as a tuna, Euthynnus pelamis, or the bonito.

Entomology. click beetle.

Nautical. an American one-masted sailing vessel.

Origin of skipjack

First recorded in 1545–55; skip¹ + jack¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for skipjack

Historical Examples of skipjack

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.
Puppets at Large
F. Anstey
"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

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)

black skipjack a small spotted tuna, Euthynnus yaito, of Indo-Pacific seas

any of several other unrelated fishes, such as the alewife and bonito

nautical an American sloop used for oystering and as a yacht

another name for a click beetle

Word Origin for skipjack

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

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.