To gamble with printers’ quadrats.
1837. We move that the printers of the U.S. divide off in halves, and “jeff” to see which shall go to digging ditches or picking stone coal for a living.—Balt. Commercial Transcript, Nov. 7, p. 2/1.
1888. He never set any type except in the rush of the last day, and then he would smouch all the poetry, and leave the rest to jeff for the solid takes.—‘American Humorist’ (Farmer).
