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Jackleg in Scrabble and Meaning

Lookup Word Points and Definitions

What does jackleg mean? Is jackleg a Scrabble word?

How many points in Scrabble is jackleg worth? jackleg how many points in Words With Friends? What does jackleg mean? Get all these answers on this page.

Scrabble® and Words with Friends® points for jackleg

See how to calculate how many points for jackleg.

Is jackleg a Scrabble word?

Yes. The word jackleg is a Scrabble US word. The word jackleg is worth 21 points in Scrabble:

J8A1C3K5L1E1G2

Is jackleg a Scrabble UK word?

Yes. The word jackleg is a Scrabble UK word and has 21 points:

J8A1C3K5L1E1G2

Is jackleg a Words With Friends word?

Yes. The word jackleg is a Words With Friends word. The word jackleg is worth 26 points in Words With Friends (WWF):

J10A1C4K5L2E1G3

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Valid words made from Jackleg

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Results

7-letter words (1 found)

JACKLEG,

5-letter words (2 found)

ALECK,GLACE,

4-letter words (17 found)

ALEC,CAGE,CAKE,CALK,CLAG,CLEG,EGAL,GALE,GEAL,GECK,JACK,JAKE,KALE,LACE,LACK,LAKE,LEAK,

3-letter words (22 found)

ACE,AGE,AKE,ALE,CAG,CAL,CEL,ELK,GAE,GAK,GAL,GEL,JAG,JAK,KAE,KEA,KEG,LAC,LAG,LEA,LEG,LEK,

2-letter words (8 found)

AE,AG,AL,EA,EL,JA,KA,LA,

1-letter words (1 found)

E,

You can make 51 words from jackleg according to the Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

Definitions and meaning of jackleg

jackleg

Alternative forms

  • jacklegged (adjective)

Etymology

Compare blackleg (a person who replaces striking workers; a cheater) and such expressions as jack of all trades, every man jack.

Adjective

jackleg (not comparable)

  1. (US) Amateur, untrained; incompetent.
    • 1841, Letter to the editor, The Southern Planter, Volume I, No. 1, January 1841, p. 12,[1]
      The next year I had a projecting kind of jack leg carpenter, from Hanover, living with me in the capacity of overseer […]
    • 1941, Martha Colquitt, Interview published in Slave Narratives, Library of Congress Project, Volume 4: Georgia Narratives, Part 1,[2]
      Grandma didn’t think chillun ought to see funerals, so de first one I ever seed, wuz when ma died two years atter de War wuz done over. A jackleg colored preacher talked, but he didn’t have sense ’nuff to preach a sho’ ’nuff sermon.
    • 1957, Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, Wolfbane, Chapter 11, in Galaxy Science Fiction,[3]
      He was a doer, not a thinker; his skills were the skills of an artisan, a tinkerer, a jackleg mechanic.
  2. (US) Dishonest, unscrupulous.
  3. (US) Ineptly built or operated; makeshift.
    • 2005, William Hoffman, Lies, Montgomery, Alabama: River City Publishing, Chapter 23, p. 226,[10]
      Driving the secondhand Chevy pickup, he visits not only major car dealerships but also every jackleg garage he happens upon in dusty sun-blasted towns of the Deep South.

Noun

jackleg (plural jacklegs)

  1. A type of drill operated by means of compressed air.
  2. (US) An amateur; an untrained or incompetent person.
    • 1999, David Horsley, Into the Wind, Houston, Texas: Winedale Publishing, “Tops for Trees,” p. 180,[14]
      If it were up to me, we’d have a city ordinance against incompetent pruning of trees. You need a permit to unclog a sewer or fix a light switch, but any jackleg with a chainsaw can climb up a ladder and undo in five minutes what Mother Nature took decades to accomplish.
  3. (US) A shyster or con artist; a gambler who cheats; a generally dishonest or reprehensible person.

Derived terms

  • jackleg fence

Usage notes

Although the term most often carries negative connotations (inept, dishonest), it may also have positive ones (self-taught expert, hands-on learner). Occasionally it is used as a generic pejorative intensifier, equivalent to damn, out-and-out, etc., e.g. a jackleg crook, a jackleg bastard.

References


Source: wiktionary.org