Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Anglo-Ind.) an answer of ‘no’ to a proposal of marriage.

1834		B. Hall Fragments of Voyages I 353: ‘What may Juwab mean?’ I begged to know. ‘Ask your neighbour,’ whispered he. I did so, in all the innocence of my griffinage, and said, ‘Pray, sir, what does the word Juwab mean? – they tell me you know well’ [...] ‘Oh! Juwab means an answer, or rather – a refusal’.
1836		Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register 20 97: Doubts concerning the existence of the Juwaub Club have been entertained by persons well-acquainted with the nature and structure of Anglo-Indian society, perhaps in consequence of the secrecy observed by those who have the misfortune to belong to it. [...] [I]t is known well that a single juwaub entitles a member to admission.
1844		J.W. Kaye Peregrine Pultuney I 126: ‘One morning I go to master [...] say sahib — master not give juwab [...] master quite dead’.
1848		J.H. Stocqueler Oriental Interpreter 114/2: JUWAUB, literally, ‘an answer,’ but familiarly used in Anglo-Indian colloquy to imply a negatur to the matrimonial proposal. ‘He has got his juwaub,’ or ‘He has been juwaubbed,’ denotes the failure of an aspirant to obtain the hand of the object of his devotion.
1858		C. Ball ‘Glossary of the Hindostani’ in History of the Indian Mutiny 2/1: Jawab, a., an answer.
1867		All the Year Round (London) 28 Dec. 67/2: He proposed to her in the verandah of old Currise’s house; for, by the advice of his counsellor, old Mrs. Fanesome, that infatuated Judge had given an immense ball to the whole ‘society’ of Calcutta, in the hopes that Annie might, by seeing the magnificence of his establishment, repent her of the ‘jawaub,’ and consent to become the second Mrs. Currise.
1877		A. Allardyce ‘The Anglo-Indian Tongue’ in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Mag. May 544/2: If Green’s face is seen to wear an air of gloom [...] it gets to be whispered that that ‘pakka flirt,’ Miss Crockett, has given the poor ‘chokhra’ (lad) his ‘jawab’.
1884		C.M. Chutney Papers 6: He never felt at all abashed at a rebuff or ‘jawab’ as it is called, and only attributed it to ‘fate’.

2. dismissal from a job.

1877		A. Allardyce ‘The Anglo-Indian Tongue’ in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Mag. May 541/1: ‘The khidmatghars loot everything, and the masalchi is breaking all the surwa-basans: and when I give a hukhm to cut their tallabs, they get magra and ask their jawabs’.
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 92: ‘If he don’t give us better cooking, I shall certainly give him ‘Juwáb’ (dismissal)’.