jockey

In US baseball slang, a coach or player who berates or derides the umpire or opposing players from his team's dugout bench. In this usage, "jockey," the rider of a race horse, refers to "riding someone," which commonly means to harass or ridicule a person. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. I wish you wouldn't be such a bench jockey at our games!

A worker who spends the majority of his or her time seated at a desk. Humorously likened to the jockey of a horse. I was breaking my back working construction for five years before I finally got a job as a desk jockey at the local bank. I feel sorry for all those desk jockeys trapped inside for eight hours a day.

to move around as if trying to get into a special position. I spent most of the movie jockeying around, trying to get comfortable. She always has to jockey around a bit when she is getting into a parking place.

to manage to get someone or something into a desirable position. (See also jockey for position.) The rider jockeyed his horse into position. Try to jockey your bicycle into position so you can pass the others.

to maneuver something around; to manage something. We had to jockey our bikes around a number of stalled cars. We jockeyed around a few can to make room for the bus in the parking lot.

Maneuver or manipulate for one's own benefit, as in The singers are always jockeying for position on stage. This expression, dating from about 1900, originally meant maneuvering a race horse into a better position for winning. It was transferred to other kinds of manipulation in the mid-1900s.

A derogatory term for an African-American. A traditional feature of a Southern front yard was a statue of a diminutive black man painted in the colors of horseracing silks. His hand was outstretched, as if to hitch a horse's reins (the hand often ended in a ring for just that purpose). As an expression connoting subservience in the sense of “slave” or “mascot,” “lawn jockey” deserved to be consigned to the linguistic scrap heap.