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English
Alternative forms
Noun
jack-in-office (plural jacks-in-office)
- (derogatory) A self-important but minor official.
1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 8:But a man gifted with original thoughts and the power of expressing them, appears to be regarded by everyone in authority as much worse than the worst criminal, and all the 'jacks-in-office' unite to kick him to death if they can.
- 1967, C. P. Snow, foreword to A Mathematician's Apology, G. H. Hardy, 1948.
- Chapel at Trinity was compulsory. Hardy told the Dean, , that he could not conscientiously attend. The Dean, who must have been a jack-in-office, insisted that Hardy should write to his parents and tell them so.
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