jerkwater

(jʉrkwôt′ər)

noun

a train on an early branch railroad

Origin: jerk + water: prob. in reference to pulling the valve on the water tank to fill the engine boiler

adjective

Informal small, unimportant, etc.: a jerkwater town

See jerkwater in American Heritage Dictionary 4

adjective
Informal
  1. Remote, small, and insignificant: a jerkwater town.
  2. Contemptibly trivial: jerkwater notions.

Origin:

Origin: From jerkwater, a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to “jerk” or draw water from streams

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