Jack at a pinch

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English[edit]

Proper noun[edit]

Jack at a pinch

  1. (informal, archaic) A person whose assistance is sought only in an emergency.
    • 1839, The Cottager's Monthly Visitor, volume 19, page 270:
      "Nay, not I; it is a pretty thing to expect me to wash them; you may take them back again, and say, as Sally had them before, she may wash them now, for me; I am not going to be 'Jack at a pinch,' I can tell you."

Related terms[edit]