Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to tease, to chaff, to sneer at.

1873

Sl. Dict. 202: Jerry to jibe or chaff cruelly. Development of jeer.

2. (also gerry, jerry to) to understand, to work out, to recognize, to discern.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Feb. 3/4: ‘I told you it was Starlight, the fightin’ man, and you’d best jerry, or he’ll stoush you’.
1907		Brisbane Courier 29 May 6/3: The master has ‘jerried to the cogger’s lurk’.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 July Red Page/3: But I aint like that with other Toms. I uster give the chat ter anythink in skirts an crors kid ter ther best uv em until I met yew an now, well now things is diffrent I jerry ter a lot I never never new befor I sorter unstand a lot er that guff them poet coots writes abowt.
1919		C.H. Thorp Handful of Ausseys 174: That cove with ’is [...] slowness at jerryin’ wot I wants.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Knight’s Return’ in Chisholm (1951) 85: But all at once I place ’im, an’ I grin. / But ’e don’t jerry; ’e’s stone sober now.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: ‘To be a dag at,’ ‘to put across a beaut,’ ‘to jerry to,’ ‘ducks’ breakfast,’ ‘to float up to,’ ‘to blow up to,’ ‘to sleep in the Star Hotel’ need no explanation.
1939		A. Turner After Three [radio script] I jerried Donaldson had been putting it over the other John I was full, and that me evidence was up to putty.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 145: In the end they come to jerry to it that you an’ Clive was decent blokes.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/1: jerry – to understand.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: Tried to cut me out with me sheila. Hadn’t jerried to it before.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 174: Ted Wallis will never jerry to what is wrong with the game today.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 44: You’d think th’ lousy scum would give a battler a go, wouldn’t you? I should’ve jerried when the guy gave me the tug.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 250: jerry (v) Catch on, understand.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 19: The Scholar jerried to the El Alamein situation.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 83: I should have jerried what was going on.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 99: I saw two bank girls whispering [...] Kevin jerried and took a comb out of his back pocket, ran it slowly through his hair [...] The girls loved it.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] By the time The Foot jerried that the gate wasn’t open, it was too late.
2015		P. Doyle (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 25: Sherlock Mel gerried: he was just back from a voyage.