<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>a quick, sharp pull, thrust, twist, throw, or the like; a sudden movement: The train started with a jerk.</li><li>a spasmodic, usually involuntary, muscular movement, as the reflex action of pulling the hand away from a flame.</li><li>any sudden, quick movement of the body, as in dodging something.</li><li>Slang: a contemptibly rude, inconsiderate, or mean person: That jerk just cut me off!</li><li>(in weightlifting) the raising of a weight from shoulder height to above the head by straightening the arms.</li><li>jerks, British Informal: physical jerks.</li><li>a dance, deriving from the twist, in which the dancers alternately thrust out their pelvises and their shoulders.</li><li>the jerks: paroxysms or violent spasmodic muscular movements, as resulting from excitement evoked by some religious services.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) to pull, twist, move, thrust, or throw with a quick, suddenly arrested motion: She jerked the child by the hand.</li><li>to utter in a broken, spasmodic way.</li><li>Informal: to prepare, dispense, and serve (sodas, ice cream, etc.) at a soda fountain.</li><li>(used without object) to give a jerk or jerks.</li><li>to move with a quick, sharp motion; move spasmodically.</li><li>to talk in a broken, spasmodic way.</li><li>Informal: to work as a soda jerk.</li><li>to dance the jerk.</li><li>verb phrase Slang: Vulgar: to masturbate.</li></ul>