Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Joseff) a (usu. woman’s) overcoat or cloak; thus rum Joseph, a first-rate overcoat; queer joseph, a tattered, worn-out cloak [Joseph’s ‘coat of many colours’].

1648		Dekker Canters Dict. Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1659		Catterpillers of this Nation Anatomized 4: If he chance to espy a (Ioseph) cloak, hang in a shop any thing likely to be fil’d, it will go hard if it escape him.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 48: Joseph, A Cloak.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia II iv: Hide me; give me my joseph.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Joseph c. a Cloak or Coat. A Rum Joseph, a good Cloak or Coat. A Queer Joseph, c. a coarse ord’nary Cloak or Coat; also an old or Tatter’d one.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 12: Joseph, a Close Coat.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 207: Joseph, a cloak or coat. A rum Joseph, a good cloak or coat. A queer Joseph, a coarse, ordinary, old or tattered cloak or coat.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 32: Joseph, Cloak.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1752		Smollett Faithful Narrative in Henley Works (1901) xii 184: For snabbling his peter and queer Joseph [F&H].
1766		O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield (1883) 103: Olivia would be drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a bank of flowers, dressed in a green joseph.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Joseph, a woman’s great coat.
1790		‘The Bowman Prigg’s Farewell’ in Wardroper (1995) 283: My smish and my joseph I leave / And the rest of my duds all behind me.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1817		W. Scott Rob Roy (1883) 321: To see how a trot-cosey and a joseph can disguise a man.
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan III 7: So as to betray, with every swing of her body, the rich dress, underneath her ‘Joseff’.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 47: joseph A coat that’s patched.

2. (also Jos, Josephus) a bashful young man [Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife].

1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 12 16–23 Aug. 113: She broak his lusty Cod-piece Point, making a second Joseph of the man, who fled from her with his Breeches about his heels.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1844		New Sprees of London : Why, my tulip, if you think my palary is queerums, if you've not got faith, it's no use to yatter to a Jos.
1870		Reynolds’s Newspaper 6 Feb. n.p.: You appear to have been a regular Joseph [F&H].
1883		D. Buel ‘Bohunkus’ in New Yale Song-Book (1918) 26: There were two boys that were two sons, [...] Bohunkus had his father’s smile, / Josephus had his grin.

3. (UK juv.) a dreamer [Joseph’s dream].

1959

I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 201: A ‘Joseph’ (after Joseph’s dream) is a person who has his mind on other things.