1648-80. Rochester, Bath Intrigues, in Wks. (1728), 87. Thither two beldams and a jilting wife came. Id. The cheating jilt . . . a dry-bob whore.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 2. How has he got his jilt here?
1681. Blount, Glossographia, s.v. Jilt is a new canting word, signifying to deceive and defeat one's expectations, more especially in the point of amours.
1684. R. Head, Proteus Redivivus, 278. I only aimed at the lascivious jilt.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v. Jilt, a tricking whore. Jilted, abused by such a one; also deceived or defeated in one's expectation, especially in Amours.
1691-2. Gentlemen's Journal, Jan., p. 20. You all know, or have heard at least, what a jilt this same fortune is. Ibid. Feb., p. 11. The lewd conversation of the town-jilts.
1691-2. T. Brown, in Gentlemen's Journal, Mar. p. 10. There dwells not another such jilt in the city.
1696. Congreve, Oroonoko, Epil. She might have learn'd to cuckold, jilt and sham Had Covent Garden been at Surinam.
1714. Lucas, Gamesters, 214. One, Mary Wadsworth, a jilt of the town.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1772. G. A. Stevens, Songs Comic and Satyrical, 129. So here's to the girl who will give one a share; But as to those jilts who deny, So cursedly coy though they've so much to spare.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Jilt, a tricking woman, who encourages the addresses of a man whom she means to deceive and abandon. Jilted, rejected by a woman who has encouraged one's advances.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Jilt—a she-deceiver.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Jilt, a prostitute who hugs and kisses a countryman while her accomplice robs him.
2. (thieves').—A crowbar; a jemmy (q.v.). In pl. = housebreaking tools generally.
Verb. (thieves'). See quot.
1868. Temple Bar, xxiv. 537. Jilting is getting in on the sly or false pretences at the door, and sneaking what you can find.
Jilter, subs. (thieves').—Thieves
who work as described under Jilt
(verb.).
1863. Cornhill Magazine, vii. 91. Another notable class of criminals called jilters or Noteblankers: they go in pairs.
Jim-Brown, subs. phr. (rhyming).—Town.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, v. 'When did you come into . . . Jim Brown?' 'Oh, yesterday morning', says I, tumbling.
Jimcrack. See gimcrack.
Jimbugg, subs. (Australian squatters').—A
sheep; a woolly-bird
(q.v.).
1854. Ridley, Phil. Soc. Trans (1855), p. 73. Jimbugg, a slang name for sheep.
Jim Crow. See Billy Barlow.
Jimjams, subs. (common).—1. Delirium
tremens; the horrors (q.v.).
Also, the jams. For synonyms
see Gallon-distemper.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 4 Aug. He was a character noted for going on frequent benders until he came very near having the jimjams and then sobering up.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat., 16. Febr. He had the jim-jams yesterday evening.
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, 43. Our landlord of the Chequers was very funny about the jim-jams.
1891. Gentleman's Mag., Aug., p. 119. I thought as 'ow 'twas only the jim-*jams he'd got; but the doctor 'e says it's a bad job, an' 'is ribs is broke.
1891. Punch, 4 April. 'Look, Polly!—shee that creature long and lean, Crawling towardsh us! Jim-Jamsh are not in it With thish 'ere Bri's'h Museum! Wai' a minute!'
2. (American). Distorted views; kinks (q.v.).
1888. Cincinnatti Commercial Gazette, 22 July. We are glad to see Harper's
