subs. (old: now recognised).—Specifically, a woman who encourages, or solicits, advances to which she designs there shall be no practical end. But see quots. passim. Hence JILTED and JILT, verb.
1648–80. ROCHESTER, Bath Intrigues, in Wks. (1728), 87.
| Thither two Beldams and a JILTING Wife | |
| Came to ——— off the tedious Hours of Life. | |
| Ibid. | |
| The cheating JILT, at th’ twelfth, A Dry-bob cries. |
1672. WYCHERLEY, Love in a Wood, i. 2. How has he got his JILT here?
1681. BLOUNT, Glossographia, s.v. JILT is a new canting word, signifying to deceive and defeat one’s expectations, more especially in the point of amours.
1684. R. HEAD, Proteus Redivivus, 278. I only aimed at the lascivious JILT.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. JILT, a tricking whore. JILTED, abused by such a one; also deceived or defeated in one’s expectation, especially in Amours.
1691–2. Gentlemen’s Journal, Jan., p. 20. You all know, or have heard at least, what a JILT this same fortune is. Ibid., Feb., p. 11. The lewd conversation of the town-JILTS.
1691–2. T. BROWN, in Gentlemen’s Journal, March, p. 10. There dwells not another such JILT in the city.
1696. CONGREVE, Oroonoko, Epilogue.
| She might have learn’d to Cuckold, JILT, and Sham, | |
| Had Covent Garden been at Surinam. |
1714. T. LUCAS, Memoirs of Gamesters, etc., 214. One Mary Wadsworth, a JILT of the Town.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1772. G. A. STEVENS, Songs, Comic and Satyrical, ‘The Damn’d Honest Fellow.’
| So here’s to the girl who will give one a share, | |
| But as to those JILTS who deny, | |
| So cursedly coy, tho’ they’ve so much to spare— | |
| But drink, brother bucks, for I’m dry. |
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. JILT, a tricking woman, who encourages the addresses of a man whom she means to deceive and abandon. JILTED, rejected by a woman who has encouraged one’s advances.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. JILT—a she-deceiver.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. JILT. A prostitute who hugs and kisses a countryman while her accomplice robs him.
2. (thieves’).—A crowbar; a JEMMY (q.v.). In pl. = housebreaking tools generally.
Verb. (thieves’). See quot.
1868. Temple Bar, xxiv. 537. JILTING is getting in on the sly or false pretences at the door, and sneaking what you can find.
