jackknife
1
8.9
- noun
- /ˈdʒæknaɪf/
- Specialized
:
salto en pica
- To perform a successful jackknife, the diver should bring their feet toward their hips while bending at the waist.
Examples
-
During the competition, the diver executed a perfect jackknife, bending at the waist to touch his ankles before entering the water.
-
I can do a swan dive and a fairly good jackknife.
-
Watch this jackknife.
Fiction book (1997) -
You know, I gotta say, I always wondered, how... how drunk do you think Cynthia was when she decided to do a jackknife onto Park Avenue?
-
That night there was a jackknife high dive, followed by a routine, bureaucratic phone call and, afterward, a continual sense of helplessness.
Fiction book (1999) -
In the diving class, we learned how to properly execute a jackknife by folding our bodies at the waist before the dive.
Synonyms
104
1.0
A headfirst jump into water from a high board
Antonyms
Compounds
How Bent
7
5.9
- Specialized
1
8.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Jackknife comes from the image of a small folding knife made of jack + knife. A jackknife dive is named because the diver bends in the middle like the knife 'folding' and then straightens before entering the water.