Jeff, subs. (circus).—A rope.
1854. Dickens, Hard Times, vi. Tight-jeff or Slack-jeff, it don’t
much signify; it’s only tight-rope and slack-rope.
Verb. (American printers’).—To gamble with ‘quads’, as with dice.
1888. American Humorist. He never set any type except in the rush
of the last day, and then he would smouch all the poetry, and leave
the rest to jeff for the solid takes.
Jeffy, subs. (American thieves’).—Lightning.—Matsell (1859).
In a jeffey. See Jiffey.
Jegger.—See Jigger.
Jehu, subs. (common).—A coachman; a driver. [From 2 Kings ix, 20].
1660. J. Crouch, Return of Chas. II, p. 9. Now the restored Rump,
jehu-like, drives on.
1681. Dryden, The Medal, 119. But this new jehu spurs the hot
mouthed horse.
1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iii. 10. Our jehu was a hackney
coachman, when my Lord took him.
1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 5, p. 388 (Globe ed.). Our figure now
began to expostulate: he assured the coachman, that though his
baggage seemed so bulky, it was perfectly light.... But jehu was
inflexible.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. Jehu.
1841. Macaulay, Comic Dramatists of the Reformation [quoted in
Century]. A pious man ... may call a keen foxhunter a Nimrod ...
and Cowper’s friend, Newton, would speak of a neighbour who was
given to driving as jehu.
1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, vii. The worthy Baronet whom he
drove to the city did not give him one single penny more than his
fare. It was in vain that jehu appealed and stormed.
1855. Lady Holland, Sidney Smith, vi. She soon ... raised my wages,
and considered me an excellent jehu.
1860. Punch, iii. 177. The jehus who drive.
1889. Daily Telegraph, 5 Jan. For some time past the jehus of Paris
have betrayed a lamentable ignorance of metropolitan topography.
Jelly, subs. (common).—1. A buxom, good-looking girl: also all jelly.
Cf. Scots jelly, = excellent or worthy.—‘A jelly man well worthy of a
crown’.—Shirrefs, Poems, (1790) p. 33.
d. 1758. Ramsay, To Lieutenant Hamilton, in Wks., iii. 47. A jelly
sum to carry on A fishery’s designed.