Dictionary

jew down en · VERB

Etymology

From the noun Jew, based on the stereotype of Jews as parsimonious and driving hard bargains + down.

Meanings

1. (offensive, slang, transitive) To bargain or haggle with a seller in order to obtain a lower price for a good or service.
   • Equality, too, removes the possibility of bargaining, of jewing up or jewing down a salary, according to the exigencies of the moment. 1906, unnamed university president, quoted in John Maxson Stillman's "Relations of Salary to Title in American Universities", in Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the Eighth Annual Conference of the Association of American Universities, Association of American Universities (1907), page 80
   • […] the popular and fashionable lying, which is so prolific between merchant and customer, as the process of jewing down is going on among all traders of the day. 1861, George W. Henry, Tell Tale Rag, and Popular Sins of the Day, self-published, published 1861, page ix:
   • I wanted to get $600 and a light job and they just jewed me down to $375 and a light job. 1920, Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of North Dakotahttps://books.google.com/books?id=wnAtAQAAMAAJ, Swan v. Great Northern R. Co., p. 277
   • Millan had already been repeating his loud opinion of all Hindus, before the tailor he had so efficiently jewed down was half out of the room. 2005, Cedric Belfrage, Away from It All: An Escapologist's Notebook, Kessinger Publishing, published 2005, →ISBN, page 131:

Forms

Antonyms

jew up

Relateds

welsh · gyp