jitney
Americannoun
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jitneys
plural
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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
He had just come from helping at his church’s soup kitchen and now was at Tops, volunteering in the community jitney service that shuttles people without a ride to and from the store.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2022
What’s remarkable is that only Smith in the role of Doub, Anthony Chisholm as the old alcoholic jitney driver Fielding and Harvy Blanks as the colorful neighborhood numbers taker are reprising their Broadway performances.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2019
Who needs an on-call jitney in downtown Chicago?
From New York Times ● May 15, 2018
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
A few of the more pretentious ones pass in their own cars, or in jitneys, or upon busses.
From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2019
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
Them's Silvertown cords, and they ain't equipping jitneys with cord tires—not yet.
From Starr, of the Desert by B. M. Bower
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