jemmy - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• Rhymes: -ɛmi

From Jemmy, diminutive of James.[1] The verb is from the noun.[2]

jemmy (plural jemmies)

1. (archaic, UK, Ireland, slang) A sheep's head used as food.
2. (Australia, slang) An immigrant.
3. (obsolete, slang) A greatcoat.
4. Alternative spelling of jimmy (“crowbar”).
   • 2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 217:
     Louisa fetched the jemmy, and they approached the house in a line;.

jemmy (third-person singular simple present jemmies, present participle jemmying, simple past and past participle jemmied)

1. To shoehorn, to cram.
   two thousand people jemmied into a stadium built for fifteen hundred
2. Alternative spelling of jimmy (“open with a crowbar”).

From a variant of gim +‎ -y.[3]

jemmy (comparative jemmier, superlative jemmiest)

1. (archaic) Neat; elegant.
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 209:
     I was agreeably surprised by seeing my young friend and companion, Robert Pott, driving up the avenue in a very jemmy equipage.

• jemmily

• jemminess

• jimmy

• “jemmy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

1. ^ “jemmy, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
2. ^ “jemmy, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
3. ^ “jemmy, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.