noun
this week's lottery jackpot:
= top prize, first prize; pool,
pot, gold mine, bonanza.
also jack-pot, "big prize", 1944,
from slot machine sense (1932), from obsolete poker sense (1881) of antes* that begin when no player has a pair of jacks or better;
from jack (n.) in the card-playing sense + pot (n.1).
*ante |ˈantē|
noun
a stake put up by a player in poker and similar games before receiving cards.
Earlier, in criminal slang, it meant "trouble,"
especially "an arrest" (1902).
PHRASE
hit the jackpot 1 win a jackpot.
2 have great or unexpected success,
esp. in making a lot of money quickly:
the theater hit the jackpot with its first musical.
