jackpot
pronunciation
How to pronounce jackpot in British English:
UK [ˈdʒækpɒt]
How to pronounce jackpot in American English:
US [ˈdʒækpɑt]
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- Noun:
- the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker)
- any outstanding award
Word Origin
- jackpot (n.)
- also jack-pot, "big prize," 1944, from slot machine sense (1932), from obsolete poker sense (1881) of antes that begin when no player has a pair of jacks or better; from jack (n.) in the card-playing sense + pot (n.1). Earlier, in criminal slang, it meant "trouble," especially "an arrest" (1902). The regular Draw-Poker game is usually varied by occasional Jack-Pots, which are played once in so many deals, or when all have refused to play, or when the player deals who holds the buck, a marker placed in the pool with every jack-pot. In a jack-pot each player puts up an equal stake and receives a hand. The pot must then be opened by a player holding a hand of the value of a pair of knaves (jacks) or better. If no player holds so valuable a hand the deal passes and each player adds a small sum to the pot or pool. When the pot is opened the opener does so by putting up any sum he chooses, within the limit, and his companions must pay in the same amount or "drop." They also possess the right to raise the opener. The new cards called for are then dealt and the opener starts the betting, the play proceeding as in the regular game. ["Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th ed., 1911, "Poker." The article notes "Jack-Pots were introduced about 1870."]
Example
- 1. Mark zuckerberg is a rarity among billionaires -- he hit the jackpot with his first full-time job .
- 2. Advisers say jackpot winners should take a ' cooling off ' period of three to six months .
- 3. Wealth-management experts and financial planners say that whoever wins the jackpot faces a series of critical decisions in the first few days .
- 4. While all those other internet companies strived so hard to make money and went bust , craigslist wasn 't trying at all , but still hit the jackpot .
- 5. The unnamed woman from the island of majorca discovered that she had won the jackpot awarded friday when lottery officials finally tracked her down on monday , online lottery seller serviapuestas said in a statement .