Jiffy \Jif"fy\, n. [Perh. corrupt. fr. gliff.] [Written also
giffy.]
A moment; an instant; as, I will be ready in a jiffy.
[Colloq.] --J. & H. Smith.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
jiffy
n : a very short time (as the time it takes the eye blink or the
heart to beat); "if I had the chance I'd do it in a
flash" [syn: blink of an eye, flash, heartbeat, instant,
split second, trice, twinkling, wink, New York
minute]
WordNet (r) 2.0
28 Moby Thesaurus words for "jiffy":
breath, breathing, coup, crack, flash, half a jiffy, half a mo,
half a second, half a shake, instant, jiff, microsecond,
millisecond, minute, moment, sec, second, shake, split second,
stroke, tick, trice, twink, twinkle, twinkling, twitch, two shakes,
wink
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
jiffy n. 1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your
computer (see tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S.
and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has
become common. "The swapper runs every 6 jiffies" means that the virtual
memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the
clock, or about ten times a second. 2. Confusingly, the term is
sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval. 3. Even
more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use `jiffy' to mean the time
required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be
close to one _nanosecond_. 4. Indeterminate time from a few seconds to
forever. "I'll do it in a jiffy" means certainly not now and possibly
never. This is a bit contrary to the more widespread use of the word.
Oppose nano. See also Real Soon Now.
Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
jiffy
1. The duration of one tick of the computer's system
clock. Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the US and
Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec
has become common.
2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a
1-millisecond wall time interval. Even more confusingly,
physicists semi-jokingly use "jiffy" to mean the time required
for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to
be close to one *nanosecond*.
[{Jargon File]
(2002-03-02)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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