1594. Look About You [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), vii. 436]. Thus jets my noble Skink along the streets To whom each bonnet vails, and all knees bend.
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, ii. 5. How he jets under his advanced plumes.
1640. Rawlins, The Rebellion, ii. The proudest creatures; you shall have them jet it with an undaunted boldness.
To jet one's juice, verb. phr. (venery).—To come (q.v.); to experience the sexual spasm.
Jetter, subs. (old).—A pompous
man; a strut-noddy (q.v.). See
jet, verb.
1510. Hycke Scorner, [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), i. 164]. Brawlers, liars, jetters, and chiders.
1540. Heywood, Four P's [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), i. 384]. What, should a beggar be a jetter?
Jew, subs. (colloquial).—1. A
cheat; a hard bargainer; a sharking
usurer.
1659. Brome, The English Moor, in Wks (1873), ii. 45 (Act iii. 1). The best, Sir, I can tell is, the old Jew, Quicksands, hath lost his wife.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v. Jew. . . . He treated me like a Jew, he used me very barbarously.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Verb. (colloquial).—To drive a hard bargain; to beat down. Also to cheat.
c.1871. California Flush Times, [quoted in De Vere]. To Jew, colloquially known in England as meaning to cheat, is here often used in the sense of haggling, bargaining. 'Don't you think the old hunks wanted to jew me down to three thousand dollars?'
1883. M. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, xliii, p. 390. There's one thing in this world which isn't ever cheap. That's a coffin. There's one thing in this world which a person don't ever try to jew you down on. That's a coffin.
Worth a Jew's eye, phr. (colloquial).—Extremely valuable; 'worth its weight in gold'. [In the Middle Ages the Jews were subject to great extortions, and many stories are related of eyes put out, or teeth drawn, to enforce payment].
1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in Works, ii. 146. Let it euerlastingly be recorded for a souerain Rule, as deare as a Jewes eye.
1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, ii. 5. There will come a Christian by Will be worth a Jewes eye.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S. xxi. 'Tho' they are no good to you they are worth a Jew's eye to us, and have 'em we will.'
Jew-bail, subs. (old).—Straw-bail
(q.v.).
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v.
Jew-butter, subs. (American).—Goose-grease.
Jew-fencer, subs. (common).—A
Jew street buyer or salesman,
generally of stolen goods.
Jewhillikens! intj. (American).—A
general exclamation of surprise.
b.1872. Country Merchant, p. 221, (quoted by De Vere] ?]. Now they are coming to the rich licks! jewhillikin!
Jewlark, verb. (American).—To
'fool around': a 'portmanteau' verb
of action. [See jew = to delude
+ lark = irresponsible action].
1851. Hooper, Widow Rugby's Husband, p. 59. Wonder if I'll ketch that rascal Jim Sparks jewlarkin' round Betsy.
