Jack at a pinch
English
editProper noun
edit- (informal, archaic) A person whose assistance is sought only in an emergency.
- 1839, The Cottager's Monthly Visitor, volume 19, page 270:
- "Nay, not I; it is a pretty thing to expect me to wash them; you may take them back again, and say, as Sally had them before, she may wash them now, for me; I am not going to be 'Jack at a pinch,' I can tell you."