jockey
n. countablen. a person who rides horses in professional races. You usually see them wearing bright colors and sitting high on the horse's back.
n. a professional rider of horses in competitive racing. Often used metaphorically to describe someone who skillfully maneuvers or manipulates a situation.
The jockey wore bright green silk for the big race.
After years of training, the young jockey finally won her first major trophy at the national derby.
The success of a racehorse depends as much on the tactical intelligence of the jockey as it does on the animal's raw speed and endurance.
The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey. In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.
Commonly used as a verb ('to jockey for position') to describe competing for an advantage.
- 01
bench jockey
A player, coach or manager who verbally annoys and distracts opposition players and umpires from his team's dugout bench.
- 02
desk jockey
One who spends their time seated at a desk; especially one who is more concerned with procedure, paperwork, or administration than with an ultimate goal or a practical consequence.
- 03
talk jockey
A host of a radio talk show.