JUKE

v. n.

4 definitions — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)


1.
v.

To bend the neck; to bow or duck the head. [Written also jook and jouk.] The money merchant was so proud of his trust that he went juking and tossing of his head. L' Estrange.

2.
n.

The neck of a bird. [Prov. Eng.]

3.
v.

To perch on anything, as birds do. [Obs.]

4.
v.

A pseudonym used to designate the descendants of two sisters, the "Jukes" sisters, whose husbands were sons of a backwoodsman of Dutch descent. They lived in the State of New York, and their history was investigated by R. L. Dugdale as an example of the inheritance of criminal and immoral tendencies, disease, and pauperism. Sixty per cent of those traced showed, degeneracy, and they are estimated to have cost society $1,308,000 in 75 years.