Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Jew; both derog. and general use, depending on context; also as a nickname; thus pl. Yidden.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Sept. 13/1: The ‘Yids’ of Brisbane are very anxious to know who is the correspondent of The Bulletin.
1886		Sporting Times 24 Apr. 6/2: The Yids as keeps Yontov the best, / Is the Yidden as isn’t in work.
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day by Day’ in Sporting Times 8 Mar. 3/1: All the Yidden’s got to ’ear o’ Cho’ a-comin’ into this geldt an’ there aint a Yid east o’ Tottenham Court Roat vhat vont ave a go for it.
1897		Truth (Sydney) 10 Jan. 5/3: Oh, Providence is kind and tempers of the wind, / To the Yid, who holds the pencil and the bag.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Jan. 1/6: What won’t a true Yidder suffer in defence of dollars?
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Feb. 1/1: The bookie was a Yiddy and hung on to the two googies.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Dec. 1/1: The euchred Yid will find the ballot box harder to beat than the Barristers Board.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Nov. 1s/3: ‘Dicken to you,’ cheekily replied the strenuous Yid.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 301: Now that he longs so fervently to be a real ‘Yid,’ he can’t be.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 4 Oct. 4/2: Max was seen with Tommy D last week. What’s wrong are you after the Yids again Dorricles? Look out for the bottom lip.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Carmen’ in Gullible’s Travels 14: Carmen ain’t no regular musical show where a couple o’ Yids comes out and pulls a few lines o’ dialogue and then a girl and a he-flirt sings a song that ain’t got nothin’ to do with it.
1929		J.B. Booth London Town 306: I was bookmakin’ then, with a little Yid they called Conky.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] Later, I went out with ‘The Yid’ to look over some of my territory.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 146: ‘Gawd struth, she’s a yid. You’ll have to write to her, Ikey’.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 53: We don’t want the Bolshies, or the blasted Yids.
1938		D. Runyon ‘For a Pal’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 575: Goodbye, Pal Yid.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 114: Now and then a Wog shoves a knife into a Yid.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 93: The time they made that raid into Dorchester and had taught the Yids a lesson.
1959		B. Kops Hamlet of Stepney Green II ii: These are the consumer goods for the frum yids.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene vi: ’Onk like a yid.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 16: There are now more faggots in the entire United States than all the yids and kikes put together.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 292: ‘That fockin’ Yid’.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 596: The only people interested in Arthur were those old Yids, like Ray Radosz.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 119: Coons yids spics micks dicks you name it they’re here.
2001		Indep. 26 June 9: The term ‘Yiddo’ was not race-specific since it had been applied to non-Jewish members of staff as slang for Tottenham Hotspur fans, they said.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 373: He was trying to pass as a yid to score Jewish chicks.
2007		D.S. Mitchell Killer Tune (2008) 79: This place is probably owned by the Yids anyway.
2014		R.W. Hart ‘How to Make the Perfect New York Bagel’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] Those Yids were some tough bastards.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 630: I was damned if I was going to share with a yid.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 632: A football match after luncheon. Proud English Yeoman Patriots versus rodent yiddy ‘refugees’.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1898		Yorks Eve. Post 12 Oct. 2/5: A weekly paper gives what it calls the latest ‘Yid’ story.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] ‘Those foreign yid names’re okay for tailor stores but that’s all!’.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 61: The Yid bookies had made it [i.e. a Turkish bath] into a kind of club where they congregated at night.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 119: Sam Davis in procurement. He wasn't overjoyed to be called The Red Sea Pedestrian [...] But the fucker took offence when I called him an oven dodging yid cunt.