jiffy : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: jiffy	by the DICT Development Group
4 results for jiffy
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
jiffy n a very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat); "if I had the chance I'd do it in a flash" Synonym(s): blink of an eye, flash, heartbeat, instant, jiffy, split second, trice, twinkling, wink, New York minute
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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.
From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [jargon]:
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}.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
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)