jemmy

See also: Jemmy

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmi

Etymology 1

From Jemmy, diminutive of James. The verb is from the noun.

Noun

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.
   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     your friend in the green jemmy

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;.

Verb

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”).

Translations

cram — see cram

Etymology 2

From a variant of gim +‎ -y.

Adjective

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.

Derived terms

• jemmily
• jemminess

See also

• jimmy

References

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