English

Noun

Jack of all trades ‎(plural Jacks of all trades)

1. Alternative spelling of jack of all trades

English

Alternative forms

• Jack-at-all-trades
• Jack of all trades, Jack of all Trades, Jack-of-all-trades, jack-of-all-trades

Noun

jack of all trades ‎(plural jacks of all trades)

1. (idiomatic) One competent in many endeavors, especially one who excels in none of them.
   • 1618, Geffray Minshull, Essayes and characters of a prison and prisoners, p. 50:

     Now for the most part your porter is either some broken cittizen, who hath plaid Jack-of-all-trades, some pander, broker, or hangman, that hath plaid the knaue with all men, and for the more certainty his embleme is a red beard, to which facke hath made his nose cousin german.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. 25:

     "I am my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my own plumber, and my own gardener, and my own Jack of all Trades," said Wemmick.

   • 1912, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Where There's A Will, Ch. 5:

     A fellow can always get some sort of a job—I was coming up here to see if they needed an extra clerk or a waiter, or chauffeur, or anything that meant a roof and something to eat—but I suppose they don't need a jack-of-all-trades.

Synonyms

• factotum, handyman, polymath, sciolist

Hyponyms

• jill of all trades

Translations

References

• Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996)
• Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988)
• “Re: Jack”, ESC, The Phrase Finder, April 13, 2000