jerkwater
Describing a very small and unremarkable rural town. The term comes from the practice of "jerking water": supplying steam locomotives with water from buckets, once a common practice in smaller towns. They're sending me to some jerkwater spot in Wyoming for the assignment. I can't wait to graduate high school and get out of this boring, jerkwater town!
jerkwater town
A very small and unremarkable town that is typically regarded as dull or boring. The term comes from the practice of "jerking water": supplying steam locomotives with water from buckets, once a common practice in smaller towns. I can't wait to graduate high school and get out of this boring, jerkwater town! They're sending me to some jerkwater town in Wyoming for the assignment.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
jerkwater
mod. rural; backwoodsy; insignificant. (see also
one-horse town.)
I’m from a little jerkwater town in the Midwest. McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
jerkwater town
A small community with modest conveniences. Tracks along main lines in the early days of American railroading had permanent towers that supplied water for steam locomotives. Not so along less important routes, so train crews and any other willing hands had to form bucket brigades to fill the boiler from streams and ponds. Filling the buckets was known as “jerking water,” and any small collection of houses, stores, and community buildings where that was done were “jerkwater towns.” The epithet stuck, especially when people from larger towns and cities wanted a snide way of referring to small towns.
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price