subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A dance; GIG (q.v.). B. E. (1690).
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, ii. 2. He’s for a JIGG, or a tale of bawdry.
1614. J. COOKE, Green’s Tu Quoque, or the Cittie Gallant [DODSLEY, Old Plays (1874), xi. 268]. But what JIG is this?
1640. SHIRLEY, The Coronation, v. 1. What dost think of this innovation? Is’t not a fine JIGG.
1641. R. BROME, A Joviall Crew, in Wks. (1873), iii. 415. Such tricks and JIGGS, you would admire.
1647. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Fair Maid of the Inn, Prol. A JIG shall be clapp’d at, and every rhyme prais’d.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. JIG, a trick…. A PLEASANT JIG = a witty, arch trick.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1838. The Comic Almanack.
| And now I’m equipped for my JIG, | |
| I’ll finish my begging petition— | |
| (Pa says I’m as bad as a Whig; | |
| Such a dab to get up a commission.) |
1848. W. T. THOMPSON, Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel, p. 14. I know’d the JIG was up, and I was like the boy what the calf run over—I didn’t have a word to say.
1857–8. CHILD, Ballads, ‘The Fray o’ Suport.’
| Ah! but they will play ye anither JIGG, | |
| For they will out at the big rig. |
1888. Detroit Free Press, 29 Dec. He knew the JIG was up.
3. (old).—See JIGGER.
4. (old).—Short for GIGLOT (q.v.).
1887. Lippincott’s Magazine, July, p. 141. Shame on thee to say’t, thou bold-faced JIG.
5. (Winchester College).—A clever man: fifty years ago it meant a swindler. The word has now the meanings (i) a low joke, (ii) a swindle, (iii) an object of sport.—Notions.
1600. HEYWOOD, The Second Part of King Edward IV., i. 1.
| There, domineering with his drunken crew | |
| Makes JIGS of us. |
1652. C. B. STAPYLTON, Herodion (quoted in Notions).
| Devising with his mates to find a JIGG, | |
| That he thereby might make himself a king. |
Verb. (old).—1. To cheat; to delude; to impose upon.
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 268. [The animal] was ‘JIGGED, digged, and figged.’
2. (old).—To dance.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iv. 124.
| O! how they do frig it, | |
| Jump it and JIG it, | |
| Under the Green-wood-Tree. |
FEATHER-BED (also BUTTOCK- and MOLL PEATLEY’S) JIG, subs. phr. (venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see GREENS and RIDE.
JIG BY JOWL, adv. phr. (old).—See quot.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, v. 293.
| He with his Master, JIG BY JOWL, | |
| Unto old Gillian hy’d. |
