Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a jerky manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb with jerking motions
  • adverb with spasms

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

jerky +‎ -ly

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word jerkily.

Examples

  • I'm going to kind of jerkily move this out and you can begin to see where that town of Caledonia is.

    CNN Transcript Jan 10, 2008 2008

  • Or rather, I think of him like that kind of jerkily sexist 22-year-old of whom one thinks,

    Jacob T. Levy 2008

  • She saw before her only a boy, who was shaking her hand with a hand so calloused that it felt like a nutmeg-grater and rasped her skin, and who was saying jerkily: — The greatest time of my life.

    Chapter 2 2010

  • And at the rate of ten knots, buffeted and jerkily rolled, the

    THE PEARLS OF PARLAY 2010

  • If the reel hesitates or descends jerkily, your drag needs work.

    The Home Drag Test 2009

  • Sula drags the guitar pick up and down, up and down, faster and faster, her hand strumming jerkily, without care for rhythm or melody.

    Guitar Lessons Dallas Woodburn 2011

  • I eventually managed to jerkily creep out onto the street by keeping the parking brake engaged until I gunned the gas and lurched forward into drive.

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

  • In August 1994, Yeltsin, in Berlin to mark the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany, drank too many glasses of champagne, and on a whim grabbed the baton and jerkily conducted a police band before breaking into a chorus of the folk song “Kalinka.”

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

  • I eventually managed to jerkily creep out onto the street by keeping the parking brake engaged until I gunned the gas and lurched forward into drive.

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

  • In August 1994, Yeltsin, in Berlin to mark the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany, drank too many glasses of champagne, and on a whim grabbed the baton and jerkily conducted a police band before breaking into a chorus of the folk song “Kalinka.”

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.