1. mechanical devices that use the draft from a chimney to turn a roasting spit
Usage: historical; cooking

Examples

• The old kitchen featured smokejacks that automatically rotated the meat over the fire.
• Medieval cooks relied on smokejacks to ensure even roasting of large joints of meat.
• The museum’s collection includes several 18th-century smokejacks used in grand manor houses.
• Before electric motors, smokejacks provided an ingenious solution for continuous spit rotation.
• The smokejack’s fan blades caught the rising hot air to power the turning mechanism.