Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A short crowbar with curved ends.
  • transitive verb To pry (something) open with or as if with a jimmy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A short crowbar: same as jemmy, 1.
  • Same as jemmy.
  • noun A freight-car used for carrying coal; a coal-car.
  • A free emigrant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A short crowbar used by burglars in breaking open doors.
  • noun Australian slang An immigrant.
  • transitive verb To pry open (a door, window, etc.) with a jimmy or similar device; often used with open.

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

  • noun plural only, dialectal, US, usually plural chocolate sprinkles used as a topping for ice cream, cookies, or cupcakes.
  • noun slang A marijuana cigarette.
  • noun A device used to circumvent a locking mechanism; a slim-Jim.
  • noun slang Royal Navy slang for First Lieutenant (Executive Officer)
  • noun US A jemmy; a crowbar used by burglars to open windows and doors.
  • noun US, slang penis
  • noun US, slang A condom.
  • verb To pry open, especially a lock.

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

  • verb to move or force, especially in an effort to get something open
  • noun a short crowbar

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from the name Jimmy, nickname for James.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • As a verb, it means to force open with a jimmy. "He locked himself out of the house, so he had to jimmy the door."

    June 30, 2007

  • Jimmy Mack by Martha and the Vandellas

    February 9, 2008

  • I've only ever heard this as jemmy.

    November 19, 2008

  • A speakeasy. Seen here.

    June 3, 2009

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwTyOAsP4lI

    http://lang-8.com/485099/journals/1706106

    "I think it means "pry open" or "break open"."

    ""Jimmy" is a slang term. A native speaker would use it to describe how use a a key that doesn't quite fit into a lock. This means that the key must be moved around a bit inside the lock until it lines up correctly (and allows you to unlock the door.) In other words, "you have to jimmy the lock."

    More generally, some people could use it to describe a door that is too big for the frame and needs to be forced slightly to open; "In the Summer all the wood in this place swells up, so you will have to jimmy the door.""

    May 21, 2018

  • "There may even be active deception around this topic. A graph was recently put out by the ONS Office for National Statistics in the UK. The text on the graph states that the majority of Long COVID cases were contracted from cases people had more than two years ago, and at first glance, the graph seems to support the assertion. But if you look at the graph a little more closely, you realize they’ve monkeyed with the X-axis and the size of the bins groups of data within a specified range for each one of the bars in the chart. If you actually fix the X-axis, it’s clear that Long COVID has been skyrocketing in the last year. It appears that the ONS may have purposely manipulated the chart to hide the fact that Long COVID is exploding right now, because building such a jimmied custom chart takes MUCH more work than simply plotting the data."

    - https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/from-long-covid-odds-to-lost-iq-points-ongoing-threats-you-dont-know-about

    June 17, 2024