| 释义 |
jack-leg, jackleg, a. and n. U.S. colloq. and dial.|ˈdʒæklɛg|
[f. Jack n.1 + -leg as in black-leg 2, 3.]
Used as a term of contempt or depreciation:
A. adj. Incompetent, unskilled; unscrupulous, dishonest. Freq. used of lawyers and preachers.
B. n. An incompetent or unskilled or unprincipled person.
1850Amer. Rev. Mag. XI. 465/2 A party of some twenty of the most notorious rode up, headed by what is there [sc. in Texas] known as a ‘jack-leg’ lawyer. 1853‘P. Paxton’ Stray Yankee in Texas xiii. 137 A sorter jack-leg lawyer. Ibid. xxviii. 284 In the Texan vocabulary, all men who have a mere inkling of any trade or profession are called ‘jack-legs’. Ibid., These men were ‘jack-leg’ carpenters. 1891Harper's Mag. June 160/1 Once I was called a jack-leg and shyster. 1902W. N. Harben Abner Daniel ii. 16 The Atlanta jack-leg lawyer is akin to the Tompkins family some way. 1943R. Ottley New World A-Coming 86 The cultists were augmented by a number of herb doctors, clairvoyants, and ‘jackleg’ preachers. 1958P. Oliver in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz i. 19 The wandering evangelists, and ‘Jack-leg’ preachers. 1974Amer. Speech 1971 XLVI. 70 One innovation possibly attributable to population shift is jackleg preacher, which Carlson heard from a black informant in Roxbury.
So ˈjack-legged a.
1839Congress. Globe App. 127 A set of jack-legged pettifogging lawyers. 1892Congress. Rec. 27 May 4777/1 He goes away, and a jack-legged [army] officer could do nothing except to mark him as a deserter. |