▪ I. jeff, n.1 Circus slang.
(dʒɛf)
A rope.
| 1854 Dickens Hard T. vi, Tight-Jeff or Slack-Jeff, it don't much signify; it's only tight-rope and slack-rope. |
▪ II. jeff, n.2
(dʒɛf)
Also Jeff Davis.
[f. Jefferson Davis (1808–89), president of the Confederate States 1861–5.]
A derogatory term for a man, usu. a ‘hick’ or a bore; esp. used by American Blacks of white men. Also attrib., as jeff artist, jeff hat.
| 1870 O. Logan Before Footlights 202, I thought perhaps they imagined I was a female Jeff Davis, and were going to make a ‘charge a la bayonette’ instanter. 1917 E. E. Cummings Let. 4 June (1969) 26, I escaped repairing with the bums, mutts and Jeffs. 1938 C. Calloway Hi De Ho 16 Jeff, a pest, a bore, an icky. 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) 375 Jeff Davis, an unenlightened person, a hick from down South; sometimes shortened to jeff. 1952 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (ed. 2) (1954) 391/3 Jeff Davis, jeff, a Southern ‘hick’. 1969 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. li. 29 Names used exclusively by Negroes..jeff, jeffer, jeff davis, jeff artist. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 70 Jeff,..a white person;..a dull person; a horrible square. 1973 Black World Apr. 57 He wears a jeff hat and a light raincoat. |
▪ III. jeff, v. Printers' slang.
intr. ‘To throw or gamble with quadrats as with dice’ (Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 1888). Hence ˈjeffing vbl. n.
| 1837 Baltimore Commercial Transcript 7 Nov. 2/1 (Th.), We move that the printers of the U.S. divide off in halves, and ‘jeff’ to see which shall go to digging ditches or picking stone coal for a living. 1841 W. Savage Dict. Art of Printing 428 Jeff. See Throw. 1875 J. Southward Dict. Typogr. (ed. 2) 58 Jeffing, throwing with quads... One of..[the party interested] takes up the quads, shakes them..and throws them..after the manner of throwing dice, when the number of quads with the nicks appearing uppermost are counted,..the highest thrower being the winner. 1884 J. Gould Letter-Press Printer (ed. 3) 166/1 Jeff, to throw for a choice with quadrats instead of dice. 1888 Amer. Humorist (Farmer), 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. 1892 A. Powell Southward's Pract. Printing (ed. 4) lxv. 577 In the old companionship system, the fat [sc. easy work] is distributed by ‘jeffing’, or ‘throwing quads’. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang § 526 Jeff, to play dice with em quadrates. 1947 E. Howe London Compositor 24 A custom [sc. playing at quadrats] known in the nineteenth century as ‘Jeffing’. 1967 F. J. M. Wijnekus Elsevier's Dict. Printing & Allied Industr. 177/2 Jeffing, gambling with nine one-em quadrats, i.e., to throw quards [sic] like dice, using the nick side, appearing uppermost, representing one and the other sides blanks. It is a very old custom, but now almost entirely out of practice. |