jerk-water

See also: jerkwater and jerk water

English

jerk-water (plural jerk-waters)

(rail transport, derogatory) A branch line train, using light equipment
- 1918, Charmian London, Jack London and Hawaii, page 19:
  The mail was brought by a tiny "jerk-water" bobtail dummy and coach run by one, Tony, from Pearl City, a mile away, to a station near the end of the peninsula.

jerk-water (comparative more jerk-water, superlative most jerk-water)

(US, colloquial, derogatory) Of an inhabited place, small, isolated, backward.
- 1907, Charles Stelzle, Christianity's Storm Centre: A Study of the Modern City, page 103:
  That seems to disappoint them, for every sociologist likes to go back to some jerk-water college and tell those who are in the sociological class how they had to get their information by pantomime."
(US, colloquial, derogatory, rail transport) Railroads with low traffic.
- 1915, Daniel Jacob Hauer, The Economics of Contracting: A Treatise for Contractors, Engineers […], volume II, page 212:
  He had risen to the head of the greatest street car system in the world from the position of brakeman on a jerk-water railroad.
- 1922, Edward Hungerford, Our Railroads To-morrow, page 297:
  Can the keen-minded Mr. Willard at Baltimore be more anxious than the keen-minded Mr. Rea at Philadelphia to undertake the management of jerk-water branches in Connecticut or in Rhode Island or down on Cape Cod ?