jack in v.

to connect one's brain directly to a computer or cybernetic device by means of a cybernetically implanted data jack

  • 1970 R. Silverberg Tower of Glass in Galaxy Magazine June 141/20 Robert Silverberg

    Watchman replaced him in the linkup seat. He jacked himself into the computer.

  • 1984 W. Gibson Neuromancer (2004) ii. 36 William Gibson bibliography

    Your nervous system would fall out on the floor if you jacked in now.

  • 1984 W. Gibson Neuromancer (2004) iv. 65 William Gibson bibliography

    Its rainbow pixel maze was the first thing he saw when he woke. He'd go straight to the deck, not bothering to dress, and jack in…. He jacked in and worked for nine straight hours.

  • 1993 Science Fiction Studies Nov. 450

    Buy Beyond Cyberpunk, jack in, and learn a lot of the stuff you need to know to get—in Rudy Rucker’s brilliant term—‘culturally online.’

  • 1999 B. Boston Another Short Horror Story in Asimov’s Science Fiction Oct.–Nov. 158 page image Bruce Boston bibliography

    The last man on Earth who has neglected to have his neural corridors jacked into the universal net.

  • 2005 Dreamwatch Feb. 73/1

    There’s so much to digest in this edition that you feel like you’re pushing that metal spike into the back of your head and jacking in.

Research requirements

antedating 1970
Research History
Ralf Brown located, and Douglas Winston and Lawrence Watt-Evans independently submitted, a cite from a reprint of Robert Silverberg's "Tower of Glass"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1970 first magazine appearance.

Earliest cite in the OED: 1984.

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.