▪ I. jilt, n.
(dʒɪlt)
Also 7–8 gilt.
[In sense 1 = gillot 1, of which it is perh. a syncopated form (though analogies are wanting). Sense 2 appears to be influenced by jilt v., whence also sense 4.]
† 1. A woman who has lost her chastity; a harlot or strumpet; a kept mistress. Obs.
| 1672 Wycherley Love in Wood Dram. Pers., Mrs. Crossbite an old cheating Jilt, and Bawd to her Daughter. 1683 Kennett tr. Erasm. on Folly 59 He whose wife is a common jilt..and yet swears she is as chast as an untouch'd virgin. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 36 Is he not as vile a wretch, as she a mercenary gilt? 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 232 A Jilt most consummate, and impudent Doxie. |
2. ‘A woman who gives her lover hopes, and deceives him’ (J.); one who capriciously casts off a lover after giving him encouragement. (The current sense.)
| 1674 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4), Gilt or Jilt, a Cheat, or Woman that has defeated her Gallant in his Amours. 1680 Otway Orphan i. i. 66 Dilatory Fortune plays the Jilt With the brave noble honest gallant Man, To throw herself away on Fools and Knaves. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 288 ¶1 When you spoke of the Jilts and Coquets. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. III. lxxxi, Lord W—m..was waiting in expectation of my coming, and might..imagine I was playing the jilt. a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg., Marie Mignot v, They'll teach you the guilt Of coquetting and ogling, and playing the jilt. |
b. Rarely applied to a man.
| 1865 Sat. Rev. 19 Aug. 240/2 The offences of the jilt, whether man or maiden, are not, it is true, the most grievous that can be committed against society. |
3. Sc. A contemptuous term for a girl or young woman: = jillet.
| 1816 Scott Old Mort. viii, Though she's but a dirty jilt. 1818 ― Hrt. Midl. xxix, His wheat-close, you crazed jilt! |
† 4. ? A deception: cf. jilt v. 2. Obs.
| 1683 E. Hooker Pref. Pordage's Mystic Div. 63, I beleev it wil be a slurr and blurr, or a base-foul Jilt upon them⁓selvs. |
Hence ˈjiltish a., having the character of, or characteristic of, a jilt; ˈjiltship (nonce-wd.), a mock title for a jilt.
| 1690 Crowne Eng. Frier iv. 31, I let him know how your Jiltship has serv'd him. 1787 Burns Addr. for Miss Fontenelle 33 The wretch in love, Who long with jiltish arts and airs hast strove. 1897 Blackmore in Blackw. Mag. June 780 Eyes..wavering jiltish, deceitful. |
▪ II. jilt, v.
(dʒɪlt)
Also 7 gilt.
[A ‘new cant word’ in 1674; origin not recorded; connexion with gillot, or jilt n. in sense 1, is doubtful.]
1. trans. To deceive after holding out hopes in love; to cast off (a lover) capriciously; to be faithless to; to play the jilt towards. Orig. said only of a woman; in later use also of a man.
| 1673 [see jilting below]. 1674 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4), Jilt, is a new canting word, signifying to deceive and defeat ones expectation, more especially in the point of Amours. 1675 Wycherley Country Wife i. i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 71/2 He can no more think the men laugh at him than that women jilt him. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iv. xx. (1695) 403 Tell a Man, passionately in Love, that he is gilted; bring a score of Witnesses of the Falshood of his Mistress, 'tis ten to one but three kind Words of hers shall invalidate all their Testimonies. 1747 Wesley Wks. (1872) II. 78 You shortly after jilted the younger, and married the elder sister. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxxviii, Your mistress seems much disposed to jilt you. 1865 Spectator 11 Feb. 153 If the man jilts the woman he is fined,..as men are liable to be fined on conviction of open treason. |
b. absol. or intr. To play the jilt.
| 1696 Congreve Epil. to Southerne's Oroonoko, She might have learnt to cuckold, jilt, and sham, Had Covent Garden been in Surinam. a 1736 Yalden Poet. Wks. (1833) 65 The nymph, when she betrays, disdains your guilt, And, by such falsehood taught, she learns to jilt. 1739 Matrimony 3 Where have you [wife] been Jilting all the Day? |
2. gen. To deceive, cheat, trick, delude (obs.); to cheat (one's) expectation; to prove false or faithless to (any one): to ‘throw over’ or discard for another. (Now chiefly fig. from 1.)
| 1660 No Droll but a Rational Account 8 Treacherous tell-tales, that frequent clubs and Coffee-houses, whose chief business is to jilt others into discourse. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hedge-Tavern, a jilting sharping tavern. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia viii. iii, He is waiting for me at the inn: however,..if you will give me some tea here, I shall certainly jilt him. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iv. 181 But Fortune shook her swift wings and jilted him too. |
Hence ˈjilted ppl. a., ˈjilting vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also jilˈtee, one who is or has been jilted; ˈjilter, one who jilts, a jilt.
| 1673 Dryden 1st Pt. Marr. à la Mode iv. i[i], It [masquerading] was invented first by some jealous Lover, to discover the Haunts of his Jilting Mistress. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 99. 3/2 Those cruel Jilters. 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 141 Is it necessary..that you insult the jilted suitor? 1894 Pall Mall Mag. July 397 It is difficult to believe that..the jilter, not the jiltee is to be admired. |