or J, subs. (common).—1. A simpleton. For synonyms, see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 21 Sept., p. 3, col. 1. The amateur gamblers—youths of sixteen or seventeen, and flats or JAYS—are the chief patrons of faro.
1890. Punch, 22 Feb. She must be a fair J as a mater.
TO PLAY (or SCALP) ONE FOR (or TO FLAP) A JAY, verb. phr. (common).—To dupe; to swindle. See FLAP. Fr. rouler dans la farine.
1890. A. C. GUNTER, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, p. 25. Telling in broken English how he SCALPED THE Eastern JAY.
2. (old).—A wanton. It. putta.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 3. Go to, then;—we’ll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watry pumpion;—we’ll teach him to know turtles from JAYS!
1605. SHAKESPEARE, Cymbeline, iii. 4.
| Some JAY of Italy, | |
| Whose mother was her painting, hath betray’d him. |
3. (theatrical).—An amateur; a poor actor.
