[Origin uncertain: possibly, as suggested by Wedgwood, a transferred use of JUG sb.1, the feminine name, for which there are analogies. But no actual evidence connecting the words has yet been found. (Cf. Skeat, Etymol. Dict., s.v.)]
1. A deep vessel, of varying shape and size, for holding liquids, usually with a cylindrical or swelling body, or one that tapers upward, having a handle on one side, and often a spout. Frequently with qualification denoting use or kind, as brown-, claret-, cream-, milk-, water-jug, etc.
The name is applied locally with various extensions or restrictions to vessels, commonly of earthenware, also of glass or metal, sometimes even of wood or leather, occasionally, as in a hot-water jug, furnished with a lid; in U. S. having ‘a narrow neck or orifice, usually stopped by a cork’ (Cent. Dict.).
1538. Elyot, Dict., Cantharus, a pot or a iugge.
1555. Eden, Decades, 38. They haue sundry kyndes of water pottes, iugges, and drinckinge cuppes, made of earthe.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. 90. You would presente her at the Leete, Because she brought stone-Iugs, and no seal’d quarts.
1678. Mrs. Behn, Sir Patient Fancy, V. i. 82. You’re a Dutch Butter-ferkin, a Kilderkin, a Double Jugg.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Germany, II. 403. There is a great sale of stone juggs pitchers at Andernach.
1783. O’Keefe, Poor Soldier, Song ‘The Brown Jug,’ i. This brown jug that now foams with mild ale … Was once Toby Filpot.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, Let. iv. A small jug, which he replenished with ale from a large black-jack.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 107. Common brown Toby Philpot jugs.
1885. J. Martineau, Types Eth. The., I. 131. A jug is said to be empty when it has no water.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., Jug, a stone bottle, such as is used for wine or spirits, not such as a Milk-Jug, which is called a Pitcher. Ibid., Pitcher,… the term Jug is applied to large stoneware jars.
b. A jug with its contents; the liquid in a jug; esp. beer, as distinguished from the contents of a bottle, i.e., wine. Also, locally, A measure of capacity for ale or beer, usually about a pint.
1635. D. Dickson, Pract. Wks. (1845), I. 92. Carry out the refuse and jugs of the house.
a. 1716. South, 12 Serm. (1727), IV. iv. 167 (R.), The sordid Temptations of the Jug, and the Bottle.
1765. Cowper, Lett. to Lady Hesketh, 14 Sept. He gave me … a black jug of ale of his own brewing.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, v. He came up with a jug of warm water.
2. slang. A prison, jail; more fully STONE-JUG.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. v. In a box of the stone-jug I was born. Ibid. Thus was I bowl’d out at last, And into the jug for a lag was cast.
1861. Lowell, Biglow P., II. i. Poems 1890, II. 229. They sentenced me … to ten years in the Jug.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, 144. Men just out of the jug…, with their close-shaved faces, cropped heads, and prison clothes.
1899. Besant, Orange Girl, Prol. 14. That hospitable place, another refuge—call it the Black Jug—where before long you will pass a few pleasant days.
3. Comb., as jug-metal, -pot; jug-broke adj.; also jug-bitten a. (slang), intoxicated; jug-fishing U.S., a mode of fishing with the line and bait tied to a floating ‘jug’ or bottle (Cent. Dict.).
1627. J. Taylor (Water P.), Armado, B v (N.). When any of them are wounded, Pot-shot, *Iug-bitten, or Cup-shaken, so that they haue lost all reasonable faculties of the minde.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Poems, Against Ale, ii. The *Jug-broke Pate doth owe to thee Its bloody Line and Pedigree.
1641. French, Distill., i. (1651), 4. They may be of Copper … or of *Jug-metall, or Potters-metall glazed.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, IV. xxii. 276. It may as well be denyed, that Duke D’Alva’s face is not to be seen on *Jugge-pots in Holland.
