jerry

n. a short name for men named Gerald, Gerard, or Jeremy, and sometimes for women named Geraldine.

n. a common diminutive of various masculine given names such as Gerald, Gerard, or Jeremy, and occasionally feminine names like Geraldine.

“My uncle Gerald usually goes by the name Jerry at home.”

“The document was signed simply as Jerry, leaving the lawyers uncertain whether it referred to the father, Gerald, or the son, Jeremy.”

n. an old-fashioned word for a pot used as a toilet in a bedroom.

n. a colloquial term for a chamber pot. The term is largely obsolete in modern domestic contexts.

“Before indoor bathrooms were common, every bedroom had a jerry under the bed.”

“The museum display included a Victorian-era ceramic jerry, illustrating the sanitary conditions of the nineteenth century.”

British English · Informal · Archaic

v. to build something quickly and badly using cheap materials.

v. to construct something in a hasty, flimsy, or low-quality manner. Often appears as the first element in the compound 'jerry-build'.

“The shed was jerry-built and fell down during the first big storm.”

“The developer was accused of trying to jerry-build the entire housing estate to maximise profits at the expense of safety.”

Informal