The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Jacob \Ja"cob\, n. [Cf. F. Jacob. See 2d Jack.]
   A Hebrew patriarch (son of Isaac, and ancestor of the Jews),
   who in a vision saw a ladder reaching up to heaven (--Gen.
   xxviii. 12); -- also called Israel.
   [1913 Webster]

         And Jacob said . . . with my staff I passed over this
         Jordan, and now I am become two bands.   --Gen. xxxii.
                                                  9, 10.
   [1913 Webster]

         Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.
                                                  --Gen. xxxii.
                                                  28.
   [1913 Webster]

   Jacob's ladder.
   (a) (Bot.) A perennial herb of the genus Polemonium
       (Polemonium c[oe]ruleum), having corymbs of drooping
       flowers, usually blue. Gray.
   (b) (Naut.) A rope ladder, with wooden steps, for going
       aloft. --R. H. Dana, Jr.
   (c) (Naut.) A succession of short cracks in a defective spar.


   Jacob's membrane. See Retina.

   Jacob's staff.
   (a) A name given to many forms of staff or weapon, especially
       in the Middle Ages; a pilgrim's staff. [Obs.] --Spenser.
   (b) (Surveying) See under Staff.
       [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Jacob
    n 1: French biochemist who (with Jacques Monod) studied
         regulatory processes in cells (born in 1920) [syn: Jacob,
         Francois Jacob]
    2: (Old Testament) son of Isaac; brother of Esau; father of the
       twelve patriarchs of Israel; Jacob wrestled with God and
       forced God to bless him, so God gave Jacob the new name of
       Israel (meaning `one who has been strong against God')

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Jacob
   one who follows on another's heels; supplanter, (Gen. 25:26;
   27:36; Hos. 12:2-4), the second born of the twin sons of Isaac
   by Rebekah. He was born probably at Lahai-roi, when his father
   was fifty-nine and Abraham one hundred and fifty-nine years old.
   Like his father, he was of a quiet and gentle disposition, and
   when he grew up followed the life of a shepherd, while his
   brother Esau became an enterprising hunter. His dealing with
   Esau, however, showed much mean selfishness and cunning (Gen.
   25:29-34).

     When Isaac was about 160 years of age, Jacob and his mother
   conspired to deceive the aged patriarch (Gen. 27), with the view
   of procuring the transfer of the birthright to himself. The
   birthright secured to him who possessed it (1) superior rank in
   his family (Gen. 49:3); (2) a double portion of the paternal
   inheritance (Deut. 21:17); (3) the priestly office in the family
   (Num. 8:17-19); and (4) the promise of the Seed in which all
   nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gen. 22:18).

     Soon after his acquisition of his father's blessing (Gen. 27),
   Jacob became conscious of his guilt; and afraid of the anger of
   Esau, at the suggestion of Rebekah Isaac sent him away to Haran,
   400 miles or more, to find a wife among his cousins, the family
   of Laban, the Syrian (28). There he met with Rachel (29). Laban
   would not consent to give him his daughter in marriage till he
   had served seven years; but to Jacob these years "seemed but a
   few days, for the love he had to her." But when the seven years
   were expired, Laban craftily deceived Jacob, and gave him his
   daughter Leah. Other seven years of service had to be completed
   probably before he obtained the beloved Rachel. But "life-long
   sorrow, disgrace, and trials, in the retributive providence of
   God, followed as a consequence of this double union."

     At the close of the fourteen years of service, Jacob desired
   to return to his parents, but at the entreaty of Laban he
   tarried yet six years with him, tending his flocks (31:41). He
   then set out with his family and property "to go to Isaac his
   father in the land of Canaan" (Gen. 31). Laban was angry when he
   heard that Jacob had set out on his journey, and pursued after
   him, overtaking him in seven days. The meeting was of a painful
   kind. After much recrimination and reproach directed against
   Jacob, Laban is at length pacified, and taking an affectionate
   farewell of his daughters, returns to his home in Padanaram. And
   now all connection of the Israelites with Mesopotamia is at an
   end.

     Soon after parting with Laban he is met by a company of
   angels, as if to greet him on his return and welcome him back to
   the Land of Promise (32:1, 2). He called the name of the place
   Mahanaim, i.e., "the double camp," probably his own camp and
   that of the angels. The vision of angels was the counterpart of
   that he had formerly seen at Bethel, when, twenty years before,
   the weary, solitary traveller, on his way to Padan-aram, saw the
   angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder whose top
   reached to heaven (28:12).

     He now hears with dismay of the approach of his brother Esau
   with a band of 400 men to meet him. In great agony of mind he
   prepares for the worst. He feels that he must now depend only on
   God, and he betakes himself to him in earnest prayer, and sends
   on before him a munificent present to Esau, "a present to my
   lord Esau from thy servant Jacob." Jacob's family were then
   transported across the Jabbok; but he himself remained behind,
   spending the night in communion with God. While thus engaged,
   there appeared one in the form of a man who wrestled with him.
   In this mysterious contest Jacob prevailed, and as a memorial of
   it his name was changed to Israel (wrestler with God); and the
   place where this occured he called Peniel, "for", said he, "I
   have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved"
   (32:25-31).

     After this anxious night, Jacob went on his way, halting,
   mysteriously weakened by the conflict, but strong in the
   assurance of the divine favour. Esau came forth and met him; but
   his spirit of revenge was appeased, and the brothers met as
   friends, and during the remainder of their lives they maintained
   friendly relations. After a brief sojourn at Succoth, Jacob
   moved forward and pitched his tent near Shechem (q.v.), 33:18;
   but at length, under divine directions, he moved to Bethel,
   where he made an altar unto God (35:6,7), and where God appeared
   to him and renewed the Abrahamic covenant. While journeying from
   Bethel to Ephrath (the Canaanitish name of Bethlehem), Rachel
   died in giving birth to her second son Benjamin (35:16-20),
   fifteen or sixteen years after the birth of Joseph. He then
   reached the old family residence at Mamre, to wait on the dying
   bed of his father Isaac. The complete reconciliation between
   Esau and Jacob was shown by their uniting in the burial of the
   patriarch (35:27-29).

     Jacob was soon after this deeply grieved by the loss of his
   beloved son Joseph through the jealousy of his brothers (37:33).
   Then follows the story of the famine, and the successive goings
   down into Egypt to buy corn (42), which led to the discovery of
   the long-lost Joseph, and the patriarch's going down with all
   his household, numbering about seventy souls (Ex. 1:5; Deut.
   10:22; Acts 7:14), to sojourn in the land of Goshen. Here Jacob,
   "after being strangely tossed about on a very rough ocean, found
   at last a tranquil harbour, where all the best affections of his
   nature were gently exercised and largely unfolded" (Gen. 48). At
   length the end of his checkered course draws nigh, and he
   summons his sons to his bedside that he may bless them. Among
   his last words he repeats the story of Rachel's death, although
   forty years had passed away since that event took place, as
   tenderly as if it had happened only yesterday; and when "he had
   made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into
   the bed, and yielded up the ghost" (49:33). His body was
   embalmed and carried with great pomp into the land of Canaan,
   and buried beside his wife Leah in the cave of Machpelah,
   according to his dying charge. There, probably, his embalmed
   body remains to this day (50:1-13). (See HEBRON.)

     The history of Jacob is referred to by the prophets Hosea
   (12:3, 4, 12) and Malachi (1:2). In Micah 1:5 the name is a
   poetic synonym for Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes. There
   are, besides the mention of his name along with those of the
   other patriarchs, distinct references to events of his life in
   Paul's epistles (Rom. 9:11-13; Heb. 12:16; 11:21). See
   references to his vision at Bethel and his possession of land at
   Shechem in John 1:51; 4:5, 12; also to the famine which was the
   occasion of his going down into Egypt in Acts 7:12 (See LUZ
   ¯T0002335; BETHEL.)


Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's):

Jacob, that supplants, undermines; the heel