Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a young woman, but note cits. c.1698, 1700; thus jilly adj., female.

c.1460		‘Noah’ Towneley Mysteries line 318: Haue at the, Gill! Apon the bone shal it byte.
c.1468		‘Trial of Joseph and Mary’ Coventry Mysteries (1841) 131: Malkyn Mylkedoke, and fayr Mabyle [...] Kytt Cakelere and Colette Crane, Gylle Fetyse and fayr Jane.
c.1495		Skelton Agaynste A Comsely Coystrowne i line 43: Jak wold jet and yet Jyll sayd nay.
1517		Skelton Elynour Rummynge line 4: Tell you I chyll [...] Of a comely gyll That dwelt on a hyll.
1522		Skelton Why Come Ye Nat to Courte? line 926: Gyll swetis and Cate spynnys!
1546		J. Heywood Proverbs II Ch. iii: Jak shal have Gyl.
1550		Udall Ralph Roister Doister III iv: I would have you myself, and a straw for yond Gill!
1562		J. Heywood Fifth Hundred of Epigrams (1867) 182: I am dumpyshe to see thee play the drabbe, Iyll.
1568		Hist. of Jacob and Esau V vi: Come out thou little fiend, come out thou skittish Gill.
1576		Tyde taryeth no Man in Collier (1863) II 57: And now right well I may discusse, (She weepeth) / That you doe loue some other gill.
1593		Nashe Choise of Valentines (1899) 5: I com for game, therfore giue me my Jill.
1596		Nashe Have With You to Saffron-Walden in Works III (1883–4) 180: So this will be a iest to make one laugh that lyes a dying, to see a Gillian draggell taile run her tail into a bushe of thornes, because her nailes are not longer inough to scratch it.
1607		G. Wilkins Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act IV: Look ye, go not to your gills, your punks, and your cock-tricks with it.
1618		G. Mynshul Essayes of Prison n.p.: Iacke must bee equall to Gill.
1622		Massinger Virgin-Martyr II i: Yes, indeed, we laid Jill on both of us.
1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden II ii: Great Ladies, Gills, and Sluts too.
1640		Fletcher Night-Walker II i: De’e bring your Gillians hither.
1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes IV xx 268: Gillians a burnt taile, or Will with the wispe.
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 199: All shall be well, and Jack shall have Jyll.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 28: City dames and Croyden-Gillians.
1673		S. Parker Reproof to Rehearsal Transposed 260: Friends that you so often remember, Gillian the Cook-maid, and Abigail the Chamber-maid.
1684		A York-Shire Dialogue 39: A good Jack mackes a good Gill.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Gill [...] a homely Woman. Every Jack must have his Gill.
1700		‘By Cleveland’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 323: If you will be still, / Then tell you I will / Of a fusty old Gill.
1714		J. Gay The Shepherd’s Week 5th Pastoral 42: Gillian of Croydon well thy Pipe can play.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1760		‘Epitaph’ in Giant of Morpeth’s Garland 4: Here lyes the Giant Buried [...] But where he’s gone to no Man living knows. / Or what he’ll do sometimes to get a Gill, / Or where he’ll go when dry to drink his fill.
1772		G. Stevens ‘A Simple Pastoral’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 88: While, with Ale and Cakes, / Jack his Gill is treating.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Gill, the abbreviation of Gillian, figuratively used for woman. Every jack has his gill; i.e. every jack has his gillian, or female mate.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Leap Year’ in Collection of Songs II 142: Every Jack will soon find out a Jill.
c.1800		Wonder 6: The old saying, there’s never so bad a jack but there’s as bad a jill.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1837		T. Hood ‘Drinking Song’ Works (1862) IV 235: Thou dingy, dirty, drabbled, draggled jill!
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 45: GILL, a homely woman.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 50: Jill has her good points, though she does scold a little, and fight a little and drink a little.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 32: Gill, a woman.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. 14/4: At the Austral meeting, the women’s millinery crowded the men out. In the marquees there were rows and rows of Jills with never a Jack amongst them.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Games For Girls’ Sporting Times 20 Aug. 1/3: In this paper here / Is a paragraph worth studyin’ by all the Jills and Johns.
1914		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 June 8/8: Long has he been a wary doubter, Bill / He’s existed long without a jill.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1944		News of the World 11 June 6: ‘Four Jills in a Jeep’ – One of those ‘Stage Door Canteen’ efforts.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 6: The Hollywood jills and juniors could have a few for the road.
1976		T. Murphy Sanctuary Lamp in Plays: 3 (1994) II i: The mandatory one black was there of course, T.V. personalities, people from the press, jilly-journalists.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 14: The insulting connotations usually come through most clearly when the familiar form of a name is used, as in [...] the case of women, biddy (from Bridget), doll (from Dorothy, but with the strong implication that the woman is a plaything), jill (closely related to jilt).
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 130: Let me get you some Jack and a Jill.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 41: Gary Cooper and a jailbait jill jumped into that bugged bedroom.