Also 9 jimmy. [A pet-form and familiar equivalent of the name JAMES. But in sense 1 associated with, and in 2 and 3 prob. derived from, JEMMY a.]
† 1. A dandy or fop; a finical fellow. Obs.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. Oct., 490/1. The scale … consists of eight degrees; Greenhorn, Jemmy, Jessamy, Smart [etc.].
1764. Low Life, 65. The Jemmies, Brights, Flashes, Puzzes, Pizzes, and Smarts of the Town.
b. In phr. Jemmy Jessamy (Jessamine) attrib., dandified, foppish, effeminate. See JESSAMY 4.
1786. Pogonologia, 51. You pretty fellows of the present day, Jemmy-Jessamy parsons, jolly bucks.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), VI. i. A Jemmy Jessamy lover in a wood.
1823. E. Nares, Heraldic Anom. (1824), II. 356. Who is this Jemmy Jessamine Gentleman?—I am Charmoleus the Dandy, universally admired for my shape and figure and complexion.
† 2. A kind of riding-boot; also jemmy boot.
1753. Foote, Eng. in Paris, I. Wks. 1799, I. 39. When I hunt with the King … I’ll on with my Jemmys; none of your black bags and jack boots for me.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 10 June Let. i. Who … made his appearance in a pair of new jemmy boots.
† 3. A light cane, a switch. Obs. rare–1.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. Oct., 490/2. I … carried in my hand a little switch, which, as it has been long appendant to the character that I had just assumed, has taken the same name, and is called a Jemmy.
4. plur. ‘A species of woollen cloth. Aberd.’ (Jam. 1808–18).
5. A great-coat.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. But if I’d been your friend in the green jemmy—damn me—punch his head,—’cod I would.
6. A crowbar used by burglars, generally made in sections screwing together.
1811. Lex. Bal., Jemmy. A crow. This instrument is much used by house-breakers. Sometimes called Jemmy Rook.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 223. As expert a burglar as ever handled a jemmy.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, vii. 59. The thoughts of future fame, won by highway pistol, or burglar’s jemmy.
1889. D. C. Murray, Dangerous Catspaw, 26. A complete set of jemmies, of all sizes.
7. A sheep’s head as a dish.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, 7 Dials. The man in the shop, perhaps, is in the baked ‘jemmy’ line.
1852–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 48 (Farmer). They … had a ‘prime hot jemmy’ apiece.
1884. Henley & Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, IV. i. You’re all jaw like a sheep’s jimmy.
