jerkwater

Adjective Satellite

small and remote and insignificant
- "a jerkwater college"

Noun

A train on a branch line.
A jerkwater town.

Adj

Of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, and backward.

Origin / Etymology

From jerk (“to move with a sudden movement”) + water. Refers to the need to supply the boilers of steam trains with water. In rural areas and small towns with no water tower, where the train did not stop, this was done by scooping ("jerking") water from a track pan. First appears c. 1852, in the Miami County Sentinel (Peru, Indiana).

Synonyms

one-horse, pokey, poky, See: Thesaurus:remote place

Scrabble Score: 23

jerkwater: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
jerkwater: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
jerkwater: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 25

jerkwater: valid Words With Friends Word