jockey
Plural: jockeys
Noun
- someone employed to ride horses in horse races
- an operator of some vehicle or machine or apparatus
- "he's a truck jockey"
- "a computer jockey"
- "a disc jockey"
- One who rides racehorses competitively.
- That part of a variable resistor or potentiometer that rides over the resistance wire
- An operator of some machinery or apparatus.
- A dealer in horses; a horse trader.
- A cheat; one given to sharp practice in trade.
- A prostitute's client.
- A rapist.
Verb
Verb Forms: jockeyed, jockeying, jockeys
- To maneuver for a position or advantage.
- defeat someone through trickery or deceit
- compete (for an advantage or a position)
- ride a racehorse as a professional jockey
- To ride (a horse) in a race.
- To jostle by riding against.
- To maneuver (something) by skill; especially, to do so for one's advantage.
- To cheat or trick.
Examples
- Players jockey for the best letter placement on the Scrabble board.
- They were jockeying for position toward the end of the race.
Origin / Etymology
The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.
Scrabble Score: 22
jockey: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordjockey: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
jockey: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary