jog

Etymology

Late Middle English, of uncertain origin. Originally with the meaning of "to shake up and down". Perhaps an early alteration of English shog (“to jolt, shake; depart, go”), from Middle English shoggen, schoggen (“to shake up and down, jog”), from Middle Dutch schocken (“to jolt, bounce”) or Middle Low German schoggen, schocken (“to shog”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *skokkan (“to move, shake, tremble”). More at shock. Alternatively from Middle English joggen, a variant of jaggen (“to pierce, prod, stir up, arouse”) (see jag).

noun

1. An energetic trot, slower than a run, often used as a form of exercise.
2. A sudden push or nudge.
   Even when I gave her a jog with my elbow, she kept staring at her French book. Even when I gave her a nudge with my knee, she kept ignoring me. 2016, Kes Gray, Daisy and the Trouble With Jack
3. (theater) A flat placed perpendicularly to break up a flat surface.
   This angle is somewhat more acute than that of the right and left walls of the Western box set; but unlike the walls of the box set, the Kabuki wall is never broken up by a jog or by a succession of jogs. 1974, Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre, page 143
4. In card tricks, one or more cards that are secretly made to protrude slightly from the deck as an aid to the performer.

verb

1. To push slightly; to move or shake with a push or jerk, as to gain the attention of; to jolt.
   jog one's elbow
   c. 1593, John Donne, Satire I, Now leaps he upright, Joggs me, and cryes: Do you see Yonder well favoured youth? Oh, ’tis hee That dances so divinely
2. To shake, stir or rouse.
   I tried desperately to jog my memory.
3. To walk or ride forward with a jolting pace; to move at a heavy pace, trudge; to move on or along.
   1673, John Milton, “Another on the same” preceded by “On the University Carrier, who sickn’d in the time of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London, by reason of the Plague” referring to Thomas Hobson, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: Tho. Dring, p. 33, Here lieth one who did most truly prove, That he could never die while he could move, So hung his destiny, never to rot, While he might still jogg on and keep his trot,
   When we had towed about four Days more, our Gunner, who was our Pilot, begun to observe that we did not keep our right Course so exactly as we ought, the River winding away a little towards the North, and gave us Notice accordingly. However, we were not willing to lose the Advantage of Water-Carriage, at least not till we were forced to it; so we jogg’d on, and the River served us about Threescore Miles further […] 1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, page 95
   That fiery doctor who had hailed me friend, Did it because my by-paths, once proved wrong And beaconed properly, would commend again The good old ways our sires jogged safely o’er, Though not their squeamish sons; […] 1835, Robert Browning, Paracelsus/IV), Part 4
4. (exercise) To move at a pace between walking and running, to run at a leisurely pace.
5. To cause to move at an energetic trot.
   to jog a horse
6. To straighten stacks of paper by lightly tapping against a flat surface.