[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

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
see also:
giffy 

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

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
see also:
blink of an eye flash heartbeat instant split second trice 
twinkling wink new york minute 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

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

[4] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

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.


see also:
tick wall time nano real soon now 

[5] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

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
     
     
see also:
tick system clock wall time jargon file 

Jiffy >> J Words
Jiffy, definition of term: Jiffy
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