jerk off

• J-O, J/O (abbreviation)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

jerk off (third-person singular simple present jerks off, present participle jerking off, simple past and past participle jerked off) (idiomatic, chiefly Canada, US, Australia)

1. (transitive, intransitive, vulgar) To masturbate by manually stimulating one's own penis.

   Synonyms: jack off; see also Thesaurus:masturbate

   My partner and I jerk off together sometimes.

   • 1999, John Stoltenberg, The End of Manhood: Parables on Sex and Selfhood, page 245:

     But to learn to love manhood, sooner or later you have to learn to jerk off in one particular way, to the exclusion of some other possible ways.

   • 1999, Alan Ball (screenwriter), American Beauty (motion picture), spoken by Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey):

     Look at me, jerking off in the shower. This will be the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here.

2. (transitive, intransitive, vulgar) To manually stimulate someone else's penis; to give a hand job.

   She jerked me off with both hands and it felt so good I almost started crying.

   • 1983 December 31, James L. Zipper, “Happy To Be Me”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 7:

     Once in cofessional ^[sic] I told a priest I had jerked off another boy. Man, you'd have thought I'd killed him. What a lecture I got about hell and damnation! I was hoping to get some guidance and understanding. That was the end of confessions for years.

3. (intransitive, vulgar) To do nothing; to waste time.

   Stop jerking off. We've got a deadline.

4. (transitive, vulgar) To deceive.

   He was jerking us all off about how advanced the project was.

5. (chiefly dated) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see jerk,‎ off.
   • 1884, Ohio State Horticultural Society, Seventeenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Horticultural Society for the Year 1883-84, page 32:

     I climb up in my trees myself, and jerk off the suckers in the trees.

   • 1896, w:California Superior Courtsw:Colorado Supreme Courtw:Kansas Supreme Courtet al., The Pacific Reporter, page 265:

     The conductor and the head brakeman testified that they gave no order to Roy Wilson or any one else to jerk off or pull off young Mitchell from the train.

jerk off (countable and uncountable, plural jerk offs)

1. Alternative form of jerkoff (“an obnoxious person”)
2. (vulgar, US) An act of masturbation.

   Synonyms: wank, toss, tug, fingering; see also Thesaurus:masturbation

3. (film) A stunt in which the performer is suddenly pulled off a horse, etc. by means of a cable.
   • 2014, Gene Scott Freese, Hollywood Stunt Performers, 1910s-1970s:

     He became one of the industry's top horsemen, specializing in Running Ws, pit falls, and cable jerk-offs.