jackleg
9.9
Not skilled or trained and acting in a careless, temporary way
- adjective
- /ˈdʒækˌlɛg/
- Offensive
:
chapucero
- She hired a jackleg technician to set up her computer, and now it won't even turn on.
Examples
-
Despite his enthusiasm, the jackleg chef burnt the main course, much to the dismay of the guests.
-
The adults are what my father calls salt of the earth—lintheads, tillers of the soil, jackleg carpenters, and electricians, possessors of wary.
Fiction book (1996) -
The jackleg handyman struggled to fix the leaky faucet properly, leaving the job half-done.
Synonyms
amateur
vsjackleg
175
3.5
Done by someone who is not a professional and shows little skill
implies being makeshift or unqualified rather than simply nonprofessional
amateurish
vsjackleg
13
6.5
Not done well or with skill, like work by a beginner
adds the sense of being makeshift or untrained rather than only poor quality
Antonyms
How Skilled
Surface Forms
jackleg positive
Morphology
Etymology
Jackleg probably comes from the old slang jack meaning 'a common or cheap person' plus leg, which gives the picture of someone who does not stand firmly in a job. So a jackleg way of working is 'unskilled' or 'makeshift'.