different between jerk vs quake

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d????k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d???k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Etymology 1

Probably from Middle English yerk (“sudden motion”) and Middle English yerkid (“tightly pulled”), from Old English ?earc (“ready, active, quick”) and Old English ?earcian (“to ready, prepare”). Compare Old English ?earcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”). Related to yare.

Alternative forms

• yark

Noun

jerk (plural jerks)

1. A sudden, often uncontrolled movement, especially of the body.
   • 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     The black cloth bestrewn with white beads blew up from time to time, laying bare the coffin. The tired bearers walked more slowly, and it advanced with constant jerks, like a boat that pitches with every wave.

2. A quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.

   When I yell "OK," give the mooring line a good jerk!

3. (US, slang, derogatory) A dull or stupid person.
4. (Canada, US, slang, derogatory) A person with unlikable or obnoxious qualities and behavior, typically mean, self-centered, or disagreeable.
   • I finally fired him, because he was being a real jerk to his customers, even to some of the staff.
   • You really are a jerk sometimes.
5. (physics, engineering) The rate of change in acceleration with respect to time.
6. (obsolete) A soda jerk.
7. (weightlifting) A lift in which the weight is taken with a quick motion from shoulder height to a position above the head with arms fully extended and held there for a brief time.

Usage notes

• Jerk is measured in metres per second cubed (m/s³) in SI units, or in feet per second cubed (ft/s³) in imperial units.

Synonyms

• (sudden movement): jolt, lurch, jump
• (quick tug): yank
• (stupid person): numbskull
• (unlikable person): asshole, bastard, twat, knobhead, tosser, wanker, git, dick; see Thesaurus:jerk.
• (physics, change in acceleration): jolt (British), surge, lurch

Derived terms

• jerkish
• soda jerk

Translations

Verb

jerk (third-person singular simple present jerks, present participle jerking, simple past and past participle jerked)

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden uncontrolled movement.
   • 1877, Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Chapter 23[1]

     York came to me first, whilst the groom stood at Ginger's head. He drew my head back and fixed the rein so tight that it was almost intolerable; then he went to Ginger, who was impatiently jerking her head up and down against the bit, as was her way now.

2. (transitive) To give a quick, often unpleasant tug or shake.
3. (US, slang, vulgar) To masturbate.
4. (obsolete) To beat, to hit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Florio to this entry?)

5. (obsolete) To throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.

   to jerk a stone

6. (usually transitive, weightlifting) To lift using a jerk.
7. (obsolete) To flout with contempt.

Derived terms

• jerk off
• jerksome

Translations

See also

• acceleration
• displacement
• velocity
• jounce

Etymology 2

From American Spanish charquear, from charqui, from Quechua ch'arki.

Noun

jerk (uncountable)

1. (Caribbean, Jamaican) A rich, spicy Jamaican marinade.
2. (Caribbean, Jamaican) Meat cured by jerking; charqui.

   Jerk chicken is a local favorite.

Related terms

• jerky (noun)

Translations

Verb

jerk (third-person singular simple present jerks, present participle jerking, simple past and past participle jerked)

1. To cure (meat) by cutting it into strips and drying it, originally in the sun.

Translations

French

Etymology

From English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d???k/

Noun

jerk m (plural jerks)

1. jerk (dance)

Further reading

• “jerk” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Manx

Verb

jerk (verbal noun jerkal, past participle jerkit)

1. to expect

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Middle English quaken, from Old English cwacian (“to quake, tremble, chatter”), from Proto-Germanic *kwak?n? (“to shake, quiver, tremble”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?og- (“to shake, swing”), related to Old English cwe??an (“to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up”) (see quitch), Dutch kwakkelen (“to ail, be ailing”), German Quackelei (“chattering”), Danish kvakle (“to bungle”), Latin v?x? (“toss, shake violently, jostle, vex”), Irish bogadh (“a move, movement, shift, change”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kwe?k/
• Rhymes: -e?k

Noun

quake (plural quakes)

1. A trembling or shaking.

   We felt a quake in the apartment every time the train went by.

2. An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.

   California is plagued by quakes; there are a few minor ones almost every month.

Translations

Verb

quake (third-person singular simple present quakes, present participle quaking, simple past and past participle quaked or (archaic) quoke or (obsolete) quook)

1. (intransitive) To tremble or shake.
   • 1575-86, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

     Dorus threw Pamela behind a tree; where she stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is even ready to seize.
2. (intransitive, figuratively) To be in a state of fear, shock, amazement, etc., such as might cause one to tremble.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

   • 1598-99, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act I, Scene I

     If Cupid have not spent all his quiver in / Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

   • 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene II

     Now could I drink hot blood / And do such bitter business as the bitter day / Would quake to look on.

   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 2, Act IV, Scene VIII

     Who honours not his father, Henry the fifth, that made all France to quake, Shake he his weapon at us, and pass by.

   • Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and carefulness.

Derived terms

• quakebreech
• quakebuttock
• Quaker

Translations

German

Pronunciation

Verb

quake

1. inflection of quaken:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative
   3. first/third-person singular subjunctive I

Middle English

Verb

quake

1. Alternative form of quaken