a. [f. JEW sb. + -ISH. The OE. equivalent was Iudeisc, early ME. Judewish.]
1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of, the Jews; Israelitish, Hebrew.
a. 1546. Joye, in Gardiner, Declar. Art. Joye (1546), 81 b. This scismatyke jewissh Hieroboam.
1549. Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Col. ii. 16. In obseruyng of dayes, and in other Iewyshe rules.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Tit. i. 14. Not attending to Iewish fables [Wyclif fables of iewis; Tindale, etc. iewes fables].
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 113. You … spet vpon my Iewish Gaberdine.
1829. Milman, Hist. Jews, II. 85. The Jewish Exodus, or deliverance from Egypt.
1874. Green, Short Hist., II. v. A Jewish Medical School seems to have existed at Oxford.
2. fig. Chiefly referring to the extortion or overreaching attributed to Jewish money-lenders.
1606. Dekker, Sev. Sinnes, VI. (Arb.), 40. Brokers yat shaue poore men by most iewish interest.
1801. Bp. of Lincoln, in G. Rose, Diaries (1860), I. 426. Soane’s office has offered only 19,000l. … which is a Jewish offer.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, III. vi. You ask a Jewish price for it, Mr. Graves.
3. Comb., as Jewish-looking.
1874. Lisle Carr, Jud. Gwynne, II. viii. 194. A Jewish-looking gentleman in faultlessly-made clothes.
