subs. phr. (nautical).—The general appearance. [From the foremost sail of a ship, which is frequently indicative of a vessel’s character. A strange sail is judged by the CUT OF ITS JIB.]
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, I. ii. I axes you, because I see you’re a sailor by the CUT OF YOUR JIB.
1835. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iv. For I seed by the CUT OF THE FELLER’S JIB that he was a preacher.
1836. M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge (ed. 18), p. 363. Oh, I see—there is a smart hand, in the gay jacket there, who does not seem to belong to your crew—a good seamen, evidently, by the CUT OF HIS JIB.
1881. R. BUCHANAN, God and the Man, ch. xvi. By the voice of you, by the rigs of you, and by the CUT OF YOUR PRECIOUS JIB.
1884. W. C. RUSSELL, Jack’s Courtship, ch. iii. My democratic wide-awake and the republican CUT OF MY JIB, said he looking down at his clothes.
