Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A toy figure with jointed limbs that can be made to dance by pulling an attached string.
- noun Sports A physical exercise performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A toy consisting of a human figure which is caused to jump, dance, or go through various contortions, by pulling a string attached to its limbs.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- A toy figure of a man, jointed and made to jump or dance by means of strings or sticks attached to it.
- A calisthenic exercise in which a person starts in a standing position with both feet together and with the arms at the sides, then leaps into the air while moving the arms outward and upward so that the hands touch above the head, and then returns to the original position by reversing the motion of legs and hands.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A physical
exercise performed byjumping to a position with thelegs spread wide and thehands touching overhead and then returning to a position with thefeet together and thearms at the sides.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun plaything consisting of a toy figure with movable joints that can be made to dance by pulling strings
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word jumping jack.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
treeseed commented on the word jumping jack
A Jumping Jack, or side straddle hop as it is called in the United States military, is a physical exercise performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides.
More intensive versions include bending down and touching the floor in between each jump.
It is also commonly known as a star jump, especially to children of Commonwealth nations. In Canada, the term is stride jump, and the hands are not expected to touch above the head.
_Wikipedia
February 4, 2008