▪ I. jenny
(ˈdʒɛnɪ)
[A female personal name, pet-form or familiar equivalent of Janet (or, by confusion with Jinny or Jeanie, of Jane), and so serving as a feminine of Jack. Hence, like Jack, used as a feminine prefix, and as the name of machines.]
I. 1. The female name: hence, sometimes applied derisively to a man who concerns himself with purely feminine matters.
| Mod. Sc. ‘He is a regular jenny’. |
2. Used as a prefix to denote a female animal, as jenny-ass, and esp. in names of birds, as jenny-hooper, jenny-howlet, and sometimes loosely applied without reference to sex.
| 1600 Surflet Countrie Farm i. xxii. 122 To preuent the danger of owles and iennye [printed ienupe, ed. 1616 Iennie] whuppers. 1632 Brome North. Lasse iii. ii. Wks. 1873 III. 53, I should not be so fond to mistake a Jennie Howlet for a Tassel Gentle. 1828 Craven Dial., Jinny-Hullet, an owl. 1847–78 Halliwell, Jenny-Hooker, an owl. North. It is also called a Jenny-howlet. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 34 Blue Titmouse..Jenny tit (Suffolk). |
b. Short for jenny ass, jenny wren.
| 1808 E. S. Barrett Miss-led General 22 A jackass and his jenny will do well enough for a lord and lady. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss., Jenny and Jenny-wren, the wren. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 35 Wren..Familiar names. Kitty, Jenny (General). |
3. creeping Jenny, the plant Lysimachia Nummularia or Moneywort.
| 1882 Garden 12 Aug. 138/2 The common Money-wort, or Creeping Jenny as it is called. 1883 Pall Mall G. 1 Oct. 3/2 Vases..with fuchsia centres and pendent border of creeping jenny. |
II. In names of machinery, etc.
4. Short for spinning-jenny.
| [1789 Trans. Soc. Arts I. 34 The construction of this Kind of Machine, called a Spinning Jenny.] 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 440 The filling of the cotton goods is spun with jennies. Ibid. 386 The operation of the jenny is nearly the same as the roving billy. 1859 Smiles Self-Help 32 The work-people..made a desperate effort to destroy all the jennies; and a mob rose and scoured the country round Blackburn, demolishing the machines wherever they could find them. |
5. A locomotive crane which runs backwards and forwards, and is used for moving heavy weights.
| 1861 Ann. Reg. 17 The jenny, which is three or four tons in weight, fell on the top of the boiler. 1878 F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 508 A jenny, or crane, is placed on a movable platform extending from one stage to the other. |
6. A pair of compasses, having the point of one leg bent inwards, so as to be applied to an edge at right angles to the surface on which the other leg is fixed. Also called oddlegs or moffs.
| Mod. Price-list Engineers' and Joiners' Tools. |
7. Billiards. Name of a particular stroke.
| 1856 Crawley Billiards (1859) 17 The Jenny..is made by a losing hazard into the middle pocket, from a ball lying near to the cushion. 1873 Bennett & Cavendish Billiards 149 Strokes..sometimes called Jennys. 1899 Daily News 31 Mar. 3/3 He then scored two brilliant jennies—short and long—and after another loser gave a safety miss. |
8. Comb., as jenny-minder, jenny-spinning; jenny-bank, jenny-gates (see quots.); jenny-long-legs Sc., a daddy-long-legs; jenny-mony-feet Sc., a centipede (Jam.).
| 1852 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIII. ii. 275 The cross-beam in the outhouses was called the *jenny-bank, from its being the usual domicile of the barn-owl. |
| 1829 Glover's Hist. Derby I. 58 Cross-gates or *jenny-gates are then driven, which are passages not only giving admission to the pure air, but serving for different roads to the works. |
| 1899 Daily News 9 Jan. 7/2 Bolt-maker, *Jenny-minder, Yeast-seller. |
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 385 The carding-engine used in *jenny-spinning. |
▪ II. jenny
variant of ginny, Obs.