jack-in-the-box

1. 1.

   plaything consisting of a toy clown that jumps out of a box when the lid is opened

   Broaderplaything

Questions about jack-in-the-box

What does jack-in-the-box mean?

jack-in-the-box means "plaything consisting of a toy clown that jumps out of a box when the lid is opened".

How many syllables are in jack-in-the-box?

jack-in-the-box has 4 syllables: jac-k-in--the--box. The stress falls on "k-in-".

Is jack-in-the-box a common word?

jack-in-the-box is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.