Jerking

How to spell jerking

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jerking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jerking mean?

1. verbMoving or pulling something with sudden, sharp, abrupt motions.
2. nounThe act of pulling or moving in sudden, sharp tugs.

Jerking in a sentence

• verb

  The old bus kept jerking forward at every traffic light.

• noun

  The constant jerking of the heavy door loosened its hinges.

• verb

  She stopped the engine from jerking by changing gear more smoothly.

• noun

  A steady pull works better than violent jerking on a tangled cord.

Where does jerking come from?

Language of origin: Other

This is the present participle of the verb 'jerk', which surfaced in English in the middle of the sixteenth century with the sense of a sudden, sharp pull, twitch, or stroke. The origin of 'jerk' itself is genuinely murky; lexicographers have long suspected it is imitative, coined to echo the abrupt snap of the action it describes, in much the same way as related words like 'yerk' and 'jert' that appeared around the same time. Early uses referred to the lash of a whip and to brisk, snapping blows, and from there the meaning broadened to any quick, abrupt motion or tug. The American food sense seen in 'beef jerky' is unrelated, coming instead from a Spanish borrowing of a South American word. Because the base verb is short and phonetically transparent, the spelling trap in 'jerking' is simply remembering that the soft initial sound is written with a 'j' and that the suffix attaches cleanly with no doubled consonant.

How the word is built

• jerk (sudden sharp pull or movement)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)