This will move every instance of class "foo" inside the element ID "target".
$("#target).append($('.foo')); The reason is that "target" is a single element. If the target is more than one element, copy is invoked. Whether its event handlers are copied is unclear (try it). This is problematic. If your target set drops to one item the entire behavior changes: it moves the original. Why not just have a move function? That they called the insert functions "append" and the append functions "insert" is something we have to live with but they could definitely add additional functions like "move". Another possible solution is to simply document this very important behavior. The documentation is generally sloppy but this is a particularly bad case. They should unlock the documentation and allow competent technical writers to update it.