jackleg \JAK-leg\ (adjective) 1 a : lacking skill or training : amateur*b : characterized by unscrupulousness, dishonesty, or lack ofprofessional standards 2 : makeshift

Example sentence: There we were, stuck in Nowheresville with a jacklegmechanic who told us he'd fix the car but we'd have to wait afew days unless we wanted to pay him double.

Did you know? Don't call someone a "jackleg" unless you're prepared forthem to get angry with you. Throughout its more than 150-year-old history in English, "jackleg" has most often been used asa term of contempt and deprecation, particularly in referenceto lawyers and preachers. Its form echoes that of the similar"blackleg," an older term for a cheating gambler or a workeropposed to union policies. Etymologists know that "blackleg"appeared over a hundred years before "jackleg," but they don'thave any verifiable theories about the origin of the earlierterm.