roasting-jackn.
/ˈrəʊstɪŋdʒak/, U.S. /ˈroʊstɪŋˌdʒæk/ Now historical.
A device for turning a spit for roasting meat over an open fire. Cf. Jack n.2 5.Early devices were worked by weights or springs; later ones often used currents of hot air or had clockwork mechanisms (cf. bottle jack n. (a) at bottle n.3 Compounds 8).
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > cooking vessel or pot > [noun] > roasting-jack
wheeler dog1379
Jack1391
spit-turner?a1500
turnspit1606
hanging jack1660
turnspit-jack1674
smoke-jack1676
roasting-jack1698
water-jack1807
bottle jack1810
spit-jack1967
1698 T. Smith in G. Eland Shardeloes Papers (1947) ii. 28 A roasting-jack with weights.
c1770 T. Somerville in J. G. Fyfe Sc. Diaries & Mem. (1942) 228 I do not remember to have seen a roasting jack... The spit was turned by one of the servants.
1797 I. Bashaw Turkish Refugee 26 Little articles in wire, skewers, toasting-forks, roasting-jacks.
1804 Sydney Gaz. 1 July 4 (advt.) Improved new make spring roasting jacks..with regulating wheels, etc.
1830 H. Lee Mem. of Manager I. i. 23 Some sand, stones and other rubbish, contained in an old box that served as a weight to the cook's roasting jack.
1853 Househ. Words 3 Dec. 334/1 This ingenious roasting-jack, called the Automaton. See how..by the heat in the interior of the oven, a current of air is sucked through the tube.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda III. v. xxxv. 30 It is not the logic of human action, but of a roasting-jack, that must go on to the last turn when it has been once wound up.
1910 H. H. Peerless Diary 6 July in Brief Jolly Change (2003) 139 Hendre Hall..decorated with a miscellaneous collection of old pewter utensils, old roasting-jacks and a grandfather's clock.
1958 Times 27 Jan. 10/6 His obsolete domestic gear—roasting-jack, warming-pans, snuffers.
2003 J. Flanders Victorian House (2004) iii. 68 A roasting-jack was a common item throughout the century, as many people thought that meat roasted in an oven tasted inferior to that cooked before an open fire.
Compounds
General attributive and objective.
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1810 Philos. Mag. 36 240 Thomas Rice,..spring roasting-jack-maker.
1834 Tait's Edinb. Mag. New Ser. 1 132/1 The roasting-jack maker, the watchmaker,..the gunmaker, and many others.
1862 Internat. Exhib.: Illustr. Catal. Industr. Dept. II. xxxi. §5979 Improved roasting-jack screen.
1887 Trans. Lancs. & Cheshire Antiquarian Soc. 5 309 The portrait of..Peter Clare, the public-spirited clock and roasting-jack maker.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1698