jack-leggedadj.
/ˈdʒaklɛɡd/, U.S. /ˈdʒækˌlɛɡ(ə)d/ U.S. regional (chiefly southern and south Midland) and colloquial.
(attributive).
1. Of a lawyer, preacher, or other professional: lacking skills or training, incompetent; unscrupulous, dishonest; (also of a preacher, chiefly in African-American usage) itinerant; = jackleg adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [adjective] > not trained
untrained1548
untaught1581
unread1596
unprincipled1637
unbred1681
jack-legged1839
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [adjective] > awkward or inept
unrekena1325
untoward1557
unfeatya1586
unhappy1651
ungaina1657
unadept1830
jackleg1833
jack-legged1839
inapt1860
inadept1875
unpractical1890
raunchy1937
stumblebum1940
ham1941
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > a charlatan, fraudster > [adjective]
fraudulentc1430
fraudelous1483
impostorous?1549
empirical1588
quacksalving1607
imposterous1611
imposturous1611
impostrous1612
impostorious1623
mountebankish1660
jackleg1833
jack-legged1839
sharkish1844
spivvy1945
spivvish1948
1839 Congress. Globe App. 127 A set of jack-legged pettifogging lawyers.
1892 Congress. Rec. 27 May 4777/1 He goes away, and a jack-legged [army] officer could do nothing except to mark him as a deserter.
1913 O. Micheaux Conquest xxxiv. 221 He was the son of a jack-legged preacher and was very ignorant.
1955 Rotarian Oct. 53/1 My father, a most precise craftsman in the carpenter trade of that era, had much to say about jerry-builders and jack-legged carpenters.
2006 @MimsyYamaguchi 20 July in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) We going to the jack legged preacher's church. Watch your wallet.
2. Made or done hastily, clumsily, or unskilfully; shoddy, botched; makeshift, thrown-together; = jackleg adj. 2.Apparently rare before the late 20th cent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [adjective] > unskilled in art or craft > unskilfully made or done
unslya1300
misframeda1450
mismadec1480
ill-fashioned1600
bungled1619
ill-turneda1637
blunderly1746
stickit1784
wall-eyed1847
craftless1905
jack-legged1907
jackleg1936
1907 Cosmopolitan Jan. 301/1 I only thought I'd see if you old ninnies was still foolin' 'round to git up a jack-legged soirée to Mrs. Hanks.
1987 E. Brandt & L. Corwen Fifty & Fired viii. 156 I had sold about a thousand dollars worth of grass and had shown a profit of about $300, not bad for a jacklegged operation done in my spare time.
2000 Re: I may get Mopar in alt.hi-po.mopars (Usenet newsgroup) 11 Sept. Just keep looking and don't buy someone else's jack-legged project.
2014 in M. S. Harris Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare iv. 118 He tried some other jack-legged thing which didn't work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.1839