jerkwater

jerk·wa·ter

Historical a train on an early branch railroad

Origin of jerkwater

jerk + water: probably in reference to pulling the valve on the water tank to fill the engine boiler

Informal being or appropriate to a small, remote, unimportant community or region: a jerkwater town

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"jerkwater." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/jerkwater>.

APA Style

jerkwater. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/jerkwater

jerkwater

adjective

Informal

Remote, small, and insignificant: a jerkwater town.
Contemptibly trivial: jerkwater notions.

Origin of jerkwater

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

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"jerkwater." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/jerkwater>.

APA Style

jerkwater. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/jerkwater

Noun

(plural jerkwaters)

(US, historical) A train on a branch line.

Adjective

(comparative more jerkwater, superlative most jerkwater)

(US, colloquial, pejorative) Of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, backward

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"jerkwater." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/jerkwater>.

APA Style

jerkwater. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/jerkwater

jerkwater

jerkwater

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