English Explanatory Dictionary

jiffy

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A very short, unspecified length of time.
  2. A unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic timer – historically, and by convention, 0.01 of a second, but some computer operating systems use other values.
  3. The length of an alternating current power cycle (1/60 or 1/50 of a second).
  4. The time taken for light to travel a specified distance in a vacuum, usually one centimetre (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds), but sometimes one foot or the width of a nucleon.
  5. Ellipsis of jiffy bag, a padded envelope.
noun
  1. Alternative form of Jiffy bag.

Pronunciation

/ˈd͡ʒɪ.fi/ en-au-jiffy.ogg

Word forms

jiffy jiffies giffy

Etymology

Origin unknown; said to have been thieves’ cant for “lightning”. Also formerly written "giffy", to which a connection with gliff has been proposed. As a kind of envelope, a genericization of Jiffy bag.

Synonyms

instant jiff mo sec tick bat of an eye bit blink of an eye crack eyeblink flash glimpse half a mo jiffy jot minute moment New York minute New York second no time second span split-second spurt stound trice twink twinkle twinkling while bubble envelope bubble mailer Jiffy bag padded envelope padded mailer

Related words

jiffy tummy

Derived words

in a jiffy Jiffy bag
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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