jack up

phraseB2Not compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To jack up is to lift a vehicle so a wheel can be changed. Jack up the car, jacked up on blocks, jack it up carefully.

Never get under a car you only jack up, since axle stands exist because jacks fail. The figurative sense, to jack up prices, is American and dates from 1904.

Definitions of jack up

1phrasejack upTo lift a vehicle so a wheel can be changed.B2
“We had to jack up the car at the side of the road to change the flat tyre.”

jack up is a lifting.

Where it comes from

From the noun jack, a lifting device, with the price sense recorded from 1904.

Built from

jack · English — mechanical device used to raise heavy objects

Sense of “hoist with a jack” is from 1885; then, “increase prices, etc.” (1904, American English); both ultimately from noun jack* (“mechanical device used to raise heavy objects”)

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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