subs. (common).—1. A general term of banter; a ‘nice un’; as COVE, CODGER, TULIP.
1665. PEPYS, Diary, 15 Feb. At noon, with Creed to the Trinity-house where a very good dinner among the old JOKERS.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, I. ii. ‘That’s what you’ll learn to do, my JOKER, before you have been two cruizes to sea.’
1882. Daily News, 4 Oct., p. 2, col. 4. Her screams brought her husband downstairs, when the prisoner said, ‘My JOKER, I want you.’
1892. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Voces Populi, p. 121. No ’urry, old man—this JOKER ’aint arf finished with me yet.
2. (American).—An extra card used in certain games. It is blank or bears some special device. It is always a trump and generally the highest. Often called JOLLY JOKER.
1894. St. James’s Gazette, 19 July [quoted in The Saturday Review, 26 July]. ‘The game of poker is played with a pack of fifty-three cards, the fifty-third card being called the JOKER.—Ibid., ‘It is true that American manufacturers of playing cards are wont to include a blank card at the top of the pack; and it is, alas! true that some thrifty person suggested that the card should not be wasted. This was the origin of the JOKER.’
1885. J. B. GREENOUGH, The Queen of Hearts, iii. The White Knight, called the JOKER, otherwise the Best Bower, the Hero of the West, the Crown Prince of Euchre!
3. (American political).—See quot.
1895. Review of Reviews, 15 Jan., p. 70. The little JOKERS were used. (We have one of these JOKERS in our possession.) These little JOKERS were attached to the left thumbs of certain judges of election as the ballots were being counted. These JOKERS are made of rubber and have a cross on them. They are really rubber stamps. As these judges picked up the ballots they took hold of them in such a way that their left thumbs, with the JOKERS attached thereto, pressed upon the squares opposite the name of the candidate whom they wished to aid. By thus pressing upon said squares crosses were left in them.
