Jig Meaning
/d͡ʒɪɡ/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
nounA lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.
Sentence Examples
The jig is up; let's face the music like men.
The jig, reel and hornpipe are the most popular Irish dances.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The carpenter used a ____ to guide the drill precisely into the wood.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The happy couple danced a lively ____ at their wedding, and all the guests clapped their hands along.
Word Origin & History
Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown."
— 2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph:
"They were waked out of their bunks one black night by yells of "Squid O!" from Salters, and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his squid-jig—a piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half-opened umbrella ribs."
— 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:
"The bodywork employs, where possible, the same constructional methods as for the standard B.R. coaching stock, in order to utilise existing jigs and press tools."
— 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125:
"The craze for realism now led the toy manufacturers to try to make their models from still secret plans for the new cars. Should a car firm scrap its plans and jigs, the toy firm had to follow suit."
— 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 90:
"A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme / Praised and applauded by a clamorous chime."
— 1647, John Fletcher, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The carpenter used a ____ to guide the drill precisely into the wood.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The happy couple danced a lively ____ at their wedding, and all the guests clapped their hands along.