Meaning of jiffy | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A very short, unspecified length of time.
   colloquial
2. A unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic timer – historically, and by convention, 0.01 of a second, but some computer operating systems use other values.
3. The length of an alternating current power cycle (1/60 or 1/50 of a second).
4. The time taken for light to travel a specified distance in a vacuum, usually one centimetre (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds), but sometimes one foot or the width of a nucleon.
5. Ellipsis of jiffy bag, a padded envelope.
   UK, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

Equivalents

Examples

“I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

“Most of the limbs of the law do every thing in a jiffy; but ask⟳ what they mean⟳, and they would be as much puzzled, as if you required of them the explanantion of a common act of parliament.”

“"Who says I filched a vipe?" demanded the indignant thief. "Say⟳ it agin', and I'll wisit your wittualling hoffice§ [footnote: § The Mouth.] in two jiffies, my queer von! I'se as 'onest a k'racter as hany, and doesn't know⟳ vot conweyancing‖ [footnote: ‖ Picking pockets, stealing.] is: d' ye 'ear that?"”

“Of course it's kill⟳ or be killed, so at it you go, like⟳ Carter and his wild beasts, only in right down earnest, two or three more Tigers joining in, clash slash, and the sparks flying as thick as in a smith's forge, or at a Terrific Combat at the Surrey or the Wells. Such a shindy is too hot to last⟳, and, accordingly, if you're alive at the end⟳ of two jiffies, the chance is that you find⟳ yourself making quite a melodramatic Tableau—namely, your bloody sword in one hand, a Chinese pigtail in the other, and four or five weltering Tartars lying round your feet!”

“Here Godfroy nodded pleasantly to Claude, who bowed, and was off— / —In a jiffy* to his men, who greeted him with loud hurrahs. In another jiffy, he was on a barrel, making them an oration. In another jiffy, he had hold⟳ of a horse, somehow—for the man had contrived already to make⟳ himself so popular in Viot, that he could have⟳ anything he liked for the asking. [Footnote: * Jiffy.—Let⟳ not the reader scorn the word; it is in Webster. "Jiffy, a moment."—Webster.]”

“Old Applegate, in the stern, just set⟳ and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help⟳. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab⟳ hold⟳ of the skiff's rail, close⟳ to the stern. Then, for a jiffy, I hung on and fought for breath.”

“"Plonker!" Harry shouted. Sgt Glum arrived at the double⟳ from the newly extended kitchen were the SAS were billeted. / "Sah?" / "Prepare⟳ the men, Sergeant, we're on the march⟳ in two jiffies." "Yessah! Where to, sah?"”

“The FOR...NEXT loop for TIME increments by STEP 2 (every two jiffies) for two reasons: 1) the printing of 60 jiffies a second is too fast to read⟳, and 2) the printing of each jiffy takes longer than its incrementations; this would delay⟳ the loop, so the printing of TIME$ is slower than it should be.”

“The number⟳ of processed packets per round is limited in dependence of the page size. The processed packets are forwarded to a single queue and are processed for the time of two jiffies.”

CEFR level