The Sc. job-trot, jock-trot, are earlier, and possibly distinct in origin.]
A. sb. (jo·g-tro·t).
1. lit. A jogging trot; a slow regular jerky pace (usually of a horse, or on horseback).
1796. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., s.v., To keep on a jogg-trot; to get on with a slow but regular pace.
1812. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 102. They ride … some in a jog-trot.
a. 1863. Thackeray, D. Duval, ii. Madame … rode entirely away from me, saying that she could not afford to go at my clerical jog-trot.
1866. in Engel, Nat. Mus., viii. 291. Off they [Palanquin-men] set in a nasty jog-trot, which rattled every bone in my body.
2. fig. A slow, dull, monotonous or easy-going progression in any action; a uniform unhurried pace or mode of doing anything, kept up continuously or pertinaciously.
[1709. M. Bruce, Serm. Soul-confirm., 15. You that keeps only your old Job-troot, and does not mend your pace, you will not wone at Soul-confirmation.]
1756. World, No. 193. ¶ 3. They contented themselves indeed with going on a jog trot in the common road of application and patience.
1843. Lever, J. Hinton, xxxii. There was nothing to break the monotonous jog-trot of daily life.
1887. Saintsbury, Hist. Elizab. Lit., i. 8. Nor does he [Grimald] ever fall into the worst kind of jog-trot.
B. adj. (jo·g-trot).
1. lit. Of the nature of a jog-trot, jogging; adapted for jogging along (quot. 1857).
1797. Holcroft, Stolberg’s Trav., III. lxxix. (ed. 2), 204. The stiff jog trot pace of our hack horses.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, i. Pleasant jog-trot roads, running through the great pasture-lands.
1885. Black, White Heather, i. The jog-trot clatter of the horses’ feet.
2. fig. a. Of action, or manner of acting: Uniform and unhurried; kept up steadily without haste, and without interruption or variation; according to routine; monotonous, humdrum.
[1693. Scotch Presbyt. Eloq. (1735), 116. To preach the old Jock-trot Faith and Repentance.]
1826. Scott, Jrnl., 17 Feb. A regular jog-trot way of busying themselves in public matters.
1877. T. A. Trollope, Peep beh. Sc. at Rome, xvii. 228. Large numbers … regret that the old jog-trot ways of the old jog-trot days were ever deserted.
1879. Hingston, Australian Abroad, 3. A steady jog-trot trade is now done.
b. Of persons: Acting in a jog-trot way; easy-going; keeping up a monotonous routine.
[1709. M. Bruce, Serm. Soul-confirm., 16. Your Old Job-troot Curats and your Old Job-troot Professors.]
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xx. Honest jog-trot men, who go on smoothly and dully, and write history and politics, and are praised.
1876. F. E. Trollope, Charming Fellow, II. xii. 191. A steady, jog-trot old fellow, who did his daily task like a horse in a mill.
C. adv. (jo·g-trot). At a jog-trot pace.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell. There came a man riding jog-trot through Stratford-at-the-bow.
Mod. Dial., Northampt. He got on the old mare and went off jog-trot, about three miles an hour.
Hence Jog-trot v. intr., to go or move at a jog-trot, lit. and fig. (also to jog-trot it); hence Jog-trotting ppl. a. Also Jog-trottism (nonce-wd.), jog-trot principles or practice; Jog-trotty a. (nonce-wd.), of a jog-trot character.
1837. Blackw. Mag., XLII. 419/1. He merely desired to keep the even tenor of his way, and jog-trot it through life.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xvii. It’s rather jog-trotty and humdrum.
1870. Miss Bridgman, Ro. Lynne, II. viii. 162. To … be driven along the … roads at the Rector’s jog-trotting pace.
1879. Tinsley’s Mag., XXIV. 176. Prosaic, matter-of-fact jog-trottism stands awed.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 16 Feb., 3/2. He … compared … the War Office to a four-wheeled cab that jog-trotted on neither better nor worse year in year out.
