Jib, subs. (colloquial).—1. The face: the cut of one’s jib = the
peculiar or characteristic appearance of a person.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, i. 22. If she disliked what sailors
call the cut of their jib ... none so likely as they to give them
what in her country is called a sloan.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ii. I axes you because I see you’re a
sailor by the cut of your jib.
1838–40. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3, S. iv. For I seed by the cut of
the feller’s jib that he was a preacher.
1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge. A good seaman evidently, by
the cut of his jib.
1881. Buchanan, God & the Man, xvi. By the voice of you, by the
rigs of you, and by the cut of your precious jib.
1884. Clark Russell, Jack’s Courtship, iii. ‘My democratic
wide-awake, and the republican cut of my jib,’ said he, looking
down at his clothes.