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Definition 2024


Jerry

Jerry

See also: jerry

English

Proper noun

Jerry

  1. A diminutive of the male given names Jeremiah, Jeremy, Jerome, Jerrold, Gerald, Gerard or similar male given names.
    Hello, Jerry!
    Hello,
    Newman.
    • 1970, Santha Rama Rau, The Adventuress, p. 157:
      ..."I, incidentally, am Jeremy Wilson, and anyone who abbreviates that to 'Jerry' does so at unspeakable peril."
      "Oh really?" Kay asked. "Why?"
      "Well, just a wartime hangover. We used to call the Germans 'Jerries'."
      "I don't know much about the German war."
  2. A diminutive of the female given names Geraldine or Jerilyn.
  3. A male given name.

Noun

Jerry (plural Jerries)

  1. (dated, UK) A chamber pot: a container used for urination and defecation.
Synonyms
  • See Wikisaurus:chamber pot

See also

Etymology 2

A clipped form of German popularized during the First World War.

Alternative forms

Proper noun

Jerry

  1. (Britain, US, ethnic slur, dated) A personification of the German people generally.

Noun

Jerry (plural Jerries)

  1. (Britain, US, ethnic slur, dated) A German, particularly a male German.
Usage notes

Reused during World War II and used since that war to connote lingering animosity or enmity towards Germans or Germany.

Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

References

  1. Oxford English Dictionary. "jerry, n.²".

Swedish

Etymology

From English Jerry. First recorded as a Swedish given name in 1906.

Proper noun

Jerry

  1. A male given name.

jerry

jerry

See also: Jerry

English

Noun

jerry (plural jerries)

  1. (ethnic slur) Alternative letter-case form of Jerry: a German.
  2. (Britain, slang) Alternative letter-case form of Jerry: a chamber pot.

Synonyms

  • (a German) See German
  • (chamber pot) See Wikisaurus:chamber pot

Adjective

jerry (not comparable)

  1. (dated) jerry-built
    • 1889, Alfred Thomas Story, A book of vagrom men and vagrant thoughts (page 57)
      If a man builds a jerry-house, he has a jerry conscience; and there are a lot of consciences of that description going about.