Jack-knife

From Fresh Dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Noun 1.1.1 Translations 1.2 Verb

English

Noun

jack-knife (plural: jack-knives; spelling variant: jackknife, plural: jackknives. Note: the two spellings appear roughly equally common.)

1. A compact folding knife.

   He kept a jack-knife in his pocket for various tasks.

2. The front-dive pike, in which the body folds and unfolds.

   It took me hundreds of dives to master even the simple jackknife

3. (colloquial) A semi-trailer truck accident in which the vehicle mimics the closing of a jack-knife.

   I have seen several jack-knives along that dangerous stretch of road.

4. (((physics{{#if:|, {{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}{{#if:|, {{{4}}}{{#if:|, {{{5}}}{{#if:|, {{{6}}}{{#if:|, {{{7}}}{{#if:|, {{{8}}}{{#if:|, {{{9}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}})) A statistical tool for error estimation, so called for its usefulness.

   The jackknife provides a reasonably robust way to measure error propagation.

Translations

• Dutch: zakmes n. (1)
• Frisian: bûsmês n. (1), knyft n. (1)
• German: Taschenmesser n. (1)

Verb

1. Before I knew what was happening, I'd jack-knifed like nobody's business.