Main meanings of jigger in English

: jigger¹ jigger²

jigger¹

Pronunciation /ˈdʒɪɡə/

Translate jigger into Spanish

noun

1A machine or vehicle with a part that rocks or moves to and fro, e.g. a jigsaw.
‘they invented a jigger that pulls nets under the ice’
- ‘The newly-diagnosed disease causes fingers to turn white and numb as a result of using hand-held vibrating tools such as pneumatic drills and jigger picks.’
- ‘Machines called jiggers and jolleys are used to make tableware in ceramics factories.’
- ‘With a working width of 4.5 meters, the HT jigger is the largest such dyeing unit installed in Italy.’
2A person who dances a jig.
3A small sail set at the stern of a ship.
1. 3.1A small tackle consisting of a double and single block with a rope.
  ‘What is needed is an incentive for fishers in New Zealand waters to use jiggers, a ban on trawling would do that.’
  ‘And no squid is safe from the Seattle squid jiggers who flock to the docks at dusk and stay into the wee hours of the night, hoping to catch a few.’
4A measure or small glass of spirits or wine.
‘a jigger or two of rum’
- ‘Require the use of jiggers or pre-measured dispensing systems, and buy high-quality shot glasses with pour lines marked on them.’
- ‘One drink is one can of beer, one glass of wine, or one jigger of hard liquor.’
- ‘Use a jigger or similar device to ensure that the amount of alcohol is consistent.’
- ‘A more personal synergy of my own: a jigger of Harvey's turns a fine chili to ambrosia.’
- ‘The ‘medicine’ that Amelia spoke of was actually a jigger of brandy followed by three pints of water.’
- ‘I'll have a jigger in your honor… my honor is questionable these days.’
- ‘Maybe after a jigger of scotch and a snort of ecstasy, you'll be more inclined to eat and enjoy these pretzels.’
- ‘If you must rely on a home remedy, the best is a jigger of pickle juice.’
- ‘The game lasted about an hour and half, which I think is the shelf life of a jigger of Geritol.’
- ‘Some cocktail jiggers include a handle of some sort attached to them.’
- ‘I still remember steeling myself to down the glass of the vile red stuff like a sailor knocks back a jigger of rot gut and then shakes all over.’
5 informal A rest for a billiard cue.
6Golf
dated A metal golf club with a narrow face.
- ‘Clubs were named rather than numbered so I have jiggers, cleeks, mashies, spoons [and] mussel-backs all represented in the sculpture.’
7Canadian, New Zealand A small hand- or power-operated railway vehicle used by railway workers.
- ‘I'm not taking a jigger to Wellingtown tomorrow.’

verb

[with object] informal

Rearrange or tamper with.
- ‘conventional price indexes often jigger the market basket's content’
- ‘Feldstein mentions some revenue-neutral tax jiggering that could be stimulative, but that sounds like fairly ordinary tax policy stuff to me.’
- ‘That didn't stop them from paying $1.63 billion this week for Overture, a company whose specialty is selling the ability to jigger search results.’
- ‘It says it wants 10 percent minority representation, and then they have to jigger the system to figure out how to reach that number.’
- ‘And if we jigger the foundation design to suit the purposes of organizations that will likely be dead in 15 years, how shortsighted is that?’
- ‘A four-minute featurette gives you an idea of what work was necessary to jigger the film down to a PG - 13 rating.’
- ‘Cathy's an ace with the computer and knows how to jigger the DNA analyser database to delete the log entry for a test run.’
- ‘Tax cuts and benefit increases are cynically jiggered to mesh with an increasingly mythical congressional budget plan.’
- ‘Public protestations aside, she says, ‘Clinicians know privately that results can be jiggered.’’
- ‘I've jiggered my knee, by the way - no, please, no sympathy - and it really hurts.’
- ‘We combat disease, we keep out the weather, we grow more crops, and we can jigger with our social arrangements as well.’
- ‘That adds it to the network, without any need to jigger with complex settings.’
- ‘No matter how I jigger and poke this test, I can't make it say I'll live until 100.’
- ‘In the broadest sense, the jiggering of the American vote is one of the more routine facts of political life.’
- ‘‘It'd take a lot of jiggering about and testing,’ the PFY warns.’
- ‘Will Microsoft jigger Pd to prevent Linux from running?’
modify, alter, regulate, tune, fine-tune, calibrate, balance