jimmy
1 Americannoun
-
jimmies
plural
-
a short crowbar.
-
a large male crab, especially of Chesapeake Bay.
verb (used with object)
-
jimmies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
jimmied,
past participle, past
-
jimmying
present participle
noun
-
jimmies
plural
noun
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
jimmysimple
-
jimmiessimple
-
have jimmiedperfect
-
has jimmiedperfect
-
am jimmyingprogressive
-
are jimmyingprogressive
-
is jimmyingprogressive
-
have been jimmyingperfect progressive
-
has been jimmyingperfect progressive
Past
-
jimmiedsimple
-
had jimmiedperfect
-
was jimmyingprogressive
-
were jimmyingprogressive
-
had been jimmyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of jimmy1
1840–50; generic use of Jimmy; cf. jack 1
Origin of jimmy2
1835–45; rhyming slang; Jimmy (Grant), for immigrant
Explanation
To jimmy something is to force it open. If you lock yourself out, you can jimmy a window and climb inside your house. Or you could just use that key that's hidden under a rock by the door. A thief might jimmy a car door to steal its stereo, and if you accidentally paint your kitchen window shut, you may have to jimmy it open. The verb jimmy comes from the noun jimmy, or "short crow bar," the kind of tool you'd use to jimmy something. In the 1800s, this type of crowbar was popular with burglars.
Vocabulary lists containing jimmy
The Sword of Summer
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Every Falling Star
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The Last Cuentista
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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:
A ground crew member had managed to jimmy the window open, passenger Matt Rexroad told FOX5SanDiego.com.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2023
“Unfortunately, inside of our system in certain units, our detainees have the ability to jimmy their locks,” Edwards said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 17, 2021
“Imagine the idea of the American government convincing a foreign manufacturer to jimmy equipment in its favor,” the history says.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2020
But there were no keys, and the first archivist Ms. Bingham met did not have the authority to permit her to jimmy the locks.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2015
And I’ve seen you litter, too. jimmy snyder.
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
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In the Massachusetts Senate primary on Tuesday, 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey, who was first sent to Washington the year Jimmy Carter won the presidency, handily defeated a primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
The incident occurred days before Google announced its multi-year partnership with Beast Industries, a company founded by YouTube influencer Jimmy Donaldson, also known as his media personality MrBeast, who produces viral spectacles online.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Snap rolled out a splashy ad campaign with photos of celebrities such as NBA player Jimmy Butler, rapper Jack Harlow, model Kaia Gerber, and others wearing the new Specs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Chris Hemsworth defended Gunn in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Jimmy pried the thing out and held it up to the window.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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She fashioned little carts of coke — the hard coal used to heat ore — using jimmies and dragées.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2022
A small boy appears, jimmies the flaps off with a dinner knife and instructs the man in how to make a paper airplane.
From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2011
The real deal is a pro-biotic, slightly sour dessert that no amount of jimmies can make palatable, at least to me.
From Time ● Aug. 3, 2010
After car rying them in a soft embrace during the mating ritual, jimmies form protective cages around the "sooks," or mature females, as they shed their old shells and wait for new skeletons to form.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The aboatia jimmies the trophy case open like a cat burglar and hops onto one of the doorknobs.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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I had to use the trunk opener inside the glove compartment, which, of course, had been jimmied open, and I kept closed with duct tape.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
For one thing, “& Juliet” is not — like “Jersey Boys” and “The Cher Show” — a biomusical, chronicling artists’ ups and downs no matter how jimmied or flat-out falsified.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2022
In their video, posted Friday, the structure is jimmied into place under cover of darkness while one man shouts, “You can’t bring me down!”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2020
They peered at the famous door that was jimmied during the Watergate burglary.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 31, 2019
We could move it back and forth with our hands and lean it way to the side when we jimmied it from underneath with a pick.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
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By now, Zhao’s at it again with the crowbar, jimmying our hearts open for one last tearjerk.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2025
But in jimmying the original into a more serious musical format as it proceeds, it achieves only a middling geniality.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2022
“I wasn’t really thinking about the fight at the time,” Forsyth said of his moments jimmying his way into the FBI office.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2021
Mr. Baugh went to work, officials said, backing his truck up, jimmying the offending vehicle’s window and hastily removing the S.U.V. — with 15 seconds to spare.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2015
Cope was caught at one point jimmying open crates that belonged to Marsh.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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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.