jackpotn.
/ˈdʒakpɒt/, U.S. /ˈdʒækˌpɑt/ 1.
a. Poker. In draw poker: a pot or pool which accumulates until one of the players can open the betting with a pair of jacks or better. Also in plural: poker played with such a pot.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > poker > [noun] > stake > in draw-poker
jackpot1865
1865 National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 4 May 11 A, B, C, and D are playing draw poker. It's a jack pot.
1895 Harper's Mag. Mar. 536 He suggested a round of jack-pots.
1920 Rio Grande Republic (New Mexico) 30 Sept. 6/5 A real honest to goodness poker joint, where jack pots, ‘down the river’, stud poker and one card monte reigned supreme.
1967 Times 18 Dec. 5/6 A jackpot may be opened by any player who holds a pair of jacks or a higher ranking hand.
2011 O. Bjerg Poker x. 207 If no player has a hand strong enough to open the betting, the compulsive bets in the form of antes and blinds are carried over into the next hand, thus creating a jackpot.
b. In extended use and in figurative contexts; esp. a sum of money collected or held in reserve as a payment, reward, etc.
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society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > set apart for a purpose > for other purposes
alms purse1530
privy purse1565
sinking fund1717
stakea1744
pension fund1757
spare-chest1769
road fund1784
revolving fund1793
community chest1796
provident fund1817
sustentation fund1837
wages-fund1848
slush fund1874
treasury chest fund1877
fall money1883
jackpot1884
provision1895
war chest1901
juice1935
fighting fund1940
structural fund1967
appeal fund1976
1884 Virginia (Nevada) Chron. 1 Oct. 3/3 Old Bill [sc. the warden] just lays back until there is a good jack-pot of trout in hand, and then he makes a bold bluff and walks off with it.
1895 Forest & Stream 7 July 510/1 One morning all chipped a dollar each into a jackpot for the benefit of the guide of the man who should take the biggest trout.
1913 Englewood (Chicago) Times 5 Dec. 8/4 Wouldn't it be just great graft to open up that jackpot of a $133,000,000 contract for some Chicago contractors?
1923 G. Ade Let. 24 Oct. (1973) 97 I..have been rather interested to learn that the Governor did not show you any degree of gratitude for your work in organizing the jackpot.
1996 S. K. Gove & J. D. Nolan Illinois Polit. & Govt. v. 79 White also told of a general slush fund, known as a jackpot, that helped sway legislative decisions.
2. North American colloquial. A difficult or awkward situation; a dilemma, a predicament, a mess. Frequently in to get into a jackpot.Earliest as part of an extended metaphor with reference to the difficulty of extricating oneself from a jackpot game at poker.
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the world > action or operation > difficulty > [noun] > difficult state of things > predicament or straits
needfulnessc1350
kankedortc1374
pressc1375
needfultya1382
briguec1400
brikec1400
plightc1400
taking?c1425
partyc1440
distrait1477
brakea1529
hot water1537
strait1544
extremes1547
pickle1562
praemunire1595
lock1598
angustiae1653
difficulty1667
scrape1709
premune1758
hole1760
Queer Street1811
warm water1813
strift1815
fix1816
plisky1818
snapper1818
amplush1827
false position1830
bind1851
jackpot1887
tight1896
squeeze1905
jam1914
1887 G. H. Devol Forty Years Gambler on Mississippi 117 We devoted ourselves to studying how to get out of the ‘jack-pot’ we had got into, without losing our stake.
1894 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Evening Gaz. 10 Feb. 4/1 If Frank Jackson doesn't make his appointments pretty soon, he will get himself into a jackpot that it will take lots of grief to crack.
1933 Van Nuys (Calif.) News 9 Oct. 1/4 (headline) Caught in real jackpot on purchase of fire station site, say city councilmen.
1959 Maclean's 4 July 34/3 Canada House receives SOS messages from ‘distressed Canadians’, the official designation for those who get themselves into various jackpots.
1991 D. Simon Homicide 112 Uniforms..who might be trying to keep out of a jackpot or cut deals for themselves.
3.
a. Any large prize from a lottery, gambling machine, game, or competition; esp. one which accumulates until it is won.
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1897 Star 28 July 2/5 The jackpot was worth it, for Miller represented the accumulated prize as having risen to £21,160.
1926 Nevada State Jrnl. 18 Dec. 3/4 (headline) Slot machine pays jackpot.
1949 Radio Times 15 July 6/3 We saw our first American audience-participation show. The prizes included a diamond wrist watch... The jackpot was 1,250 dollars!
1990 Sun 20 Oct. 4/3 We will do the same every day until someone scoops the jackpot.
2014 J. Ellenberg How not to be Wrong xi. 226 The jackpot on Monday, August 16, stood at $2.1 million.
b. Anything lucrative or desirable, esp. something which is found or acquired by chance.
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1946 Washington Post 4 Dec. c1 If you want a veritable jackpot of animals select ‘When It Rained Cats and Dogs’, by Nancy Byrd Turner.
1950 Time 13 Feb. 10/1 After Spindletop, in the superlatives of the oilfields, came a jillion jackpots—roaring booms..proved that oil was where you found it.
1983 D. R. Wallace Klamath Knot iii. 41 Preadaptation consists of gigantic single accidents, evolutionary jackpots.
2013 Wall St. Jrnl. 25 May d7/1 Not all slices [of babka] are created equal—the ends rarely get any filling, while the center cut is a proverbial jackpot of yum.
4. North American.† a. In the logging industry: a clumsy or incompetent piece of work. Obsolete. rare.
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1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau Forestry, No. 61) 40 Jackpot, a contemptuous expression applied to an unskillful piece of work in logging.
b. Originally and chiefly Forestry and in the logging industry. A jumbled pile or heap (of logs). Now rare.
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1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau Forestry, No. 61) 40 Jackpot,..an irregular pile of logs.
1912 Pacific Reporter 124 395/2 When trees are in a jackpot, the proper method of procedure is to first cut the lower tree, and then the upper one.
1939 K. Pinkerton Wilderness Wife 301 In the bush they jerked the toboggan over jackpots of wind-downed balsam that were ten feet high.
1963 W. G. Lord Blue Ridge Parkway Guide IV. 17 Men dug their cant-hooks into the logs and sent them sliding and crashing into a ‘jack-pot’ of logs in hollow below.
Phrases
to hit the jackpot: to have great or unexpected success, esp. in making a lot of money quickly; (literal) to win a large prize, esp. from a gambling machine.In quot. 1910 probably: to succeed in getting to the heart of the matter.
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the world > action or operation > prosperity > prosper or flourish [verb (intransitive)] > have good fortune
light?c1225
urec1440
to fall on (also upon) one's feet1574
to fall on (also upon) one's legs1723
to strike it rich1834
to strike oil1860
to luck out1902
to hit the jackpot1910
to bottom on (also upon) gold1926
to strike lucky1951
to hit (also strike, etc.) pay dirt1953
to land on one's feet1958
1910 F. L. May Broken Wheel ii. v. 355 ‘Well’, said McKenzie, ‘you've hit the jack pot.’
1931 Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Indiana) 21 Mar. 5/1 He has hit the jack-pot four times this week in local slot machines.
1944 Newsweek 25 Dec. 67/1 The ‘Vick's Vaper’ had indeed hit the jack-pot.
1962 Sunday Times 10 June (Suppl.) 10 There is always the chance that one or other number or artist will hit the jackpot.
2010 Sunday Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 2 May 41 Hitting the jackpot is about as likely as one in 54 million.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1865