Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a young Jewish man [SE by late 19C, though rarely used in 20C+].

1797		P. Colquhoun Police of the Metropolis 113: Forty to fifty Jew boys are regularly supplied with counterfeit half-pence; which they dispose of in the course of the day [...] for bad shillings at about 3d. each.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Nov. 759/1: [He] asserted that the Jew-boy used the most horid language and struck the defendant before he christened the boy.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 29 Dec. 145/3: Hamlet the Jeweller [...] abusing a jew boy for ranging sticks for sale aganst the closed door of his premises.
1843		Exter & Plymouth Gaz. 17 June 4/2: The Jew boys of London are proverbial for their partiality to theatrical performances.
1847		R.F. Walond Paddiana I 235: Gibraltar has its Jew boys.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair III 66: A little pink-eyed Jew-boy [...] led the party into the house.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 174: Mysteriously transmitting [bids] through the intermediary of glib Jew boys.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 123/1: No, I never touched a ham-sandwich, but other Jew boys have, and laughed at it.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 92/2: A ‘sheeny wire’ who went by the ‘chant’ of Sammy the Jew-boy.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 120: Little Jew boys, with glossy ringlets and beady black eyes, with teeth and noses like their fat mammas and avaricious-looking papas.
1881		Sydney Morn. Herald 5 May 6/4: Dubbo Races [...] Jew Boy 6 years [...] K. Browning’s chf Hebe-Darkie-Warpaint.
1885		Observer and Freelance (Wellington) 5 Sept. 4/1: The Jew boy seems very happy flying round with Miss W.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 264: I forgot all about being sleepy while I was working up the Jew boys.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 26 Apr. 7/3: One of the merry students insulted another by calling him a miserable Jew boy.
1896		Courier (Lincoln, NE) 23 May 7/2: ‘Sam’l of Posen’ is a penniless Jew boy who arrives in New York and begins to earn his living as a street peddler.
1910		D. Stewart Devil of Dartmoor in Illus. Police News 22 Oct. 12/1: ‘We has up the old woman and the Jew boy [...] all the fun of the fair’.
1910		Jewish Herald (Houston, TX) 25 Aug. 1/3: If another time, any one does him harm, I hope you will help the Jew boy and lick the other.
1922		W. McG. Eager Contemp. Rev. n.p.: Bimeby came along a Jew boy, ’oo ’ad a peep a’ ’im, an’ felt real sorry for ve poor bloke.
1923		M. Garahan Stiffs 226: He was most tickled with the one that informed the boss that the front at Cliftonville was ‘lousy with Jew boys’.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 135: Such pessimism is as rare on the Toby as a Jew-boy or a Cockney.
1940		B. Appel People Talk (1972) 28: I got no use for Jewboys.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 65: The Jew boy like himself.
1954		B. Appel Sweet Money Girl 79: Leave it to those kinds, the ginzos and the Jewboys, to be in the money.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 191: ‘Jewboys,’ said Dusty, ‘yids.’.
1969		D. Niland Dead Men Running 307: That Jesus, the Jew boy, had it right.
1977		P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 243: Who the hell you think you’re talkin’ to, Jewboy?
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 161: Jew-Boy Diminutive for male Jews.
1986		S. King It (1987) 765: She would assume he had been with Bill or Ritchie or ‘the Jewboy,’ as she called Stan.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 220: A great many more or less disparaging phrases, e.g., Jew boy (or girl or man); Jew(ish) flag, a dollar bill; Jewtown.
1993		R. Shell Iced 51: When I heard the name Eric Myers I thought he’d be this White Jew-boy, which was cool with me.
2002		(con. 1910s) M. McGrath Silvertown 50: ’Ere, Dor [...] D’you reckon Mr Moses is a Jew-Boy?
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘He didn’t want anyone thinking he was just another college-educated jewboy’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 41: Oh, I had a piece of pork, and I stuck it on a fork, and I gave it to a Jew-boy-Jew.
1930		(con. 1917) ‘W.W. Windstaff’ ‘A Flier’s War’ in Longstreet Canvas Falcons (1970) 275: This must be the Jewboy replacement.
1971		J. McClure Steam Pig 101: I’ve got Number One Jewboy lawyer.
1981		(con. c.1900) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 133: I was with Esther, another was with ‘Jew Boy’ Stevens – the CID man at Commercial Street.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] I give her the sweetest, sweetheart, Jew-boy eyes I have.

3. a derog. term for a male Jew, irrespective of age; thus fem. Jew-girl; also attrib.

1797		P. Colquhoun Police of the Metropolis 119: A vast number of these low females have acquired the mischievous art of colouring the bad shillings [...] which they purchase from the employers of Jew-boys, who cry bad shillings.
1837		Thackeray Ravenswing (1887) 70: [spoken to a man] Take that and mind your manners, you filthy Jew boy! [Ibid.] 74: She has fallen off the chair in a fainting-fit, with a heart-breaking sob that made the Jew-boy, who was listening at the key-hole, turn quite pale and walk away.
1904		‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 6 Mar. 1/1: ‘[H]e wos gassin’ away about ther lost tribes o’ Israel. “All my troubles,” I tells him, “ef them Jewboys is bushed”’.
1925		M. Arlen May Fair (1947) 109: Jewboy has made one mistake. Naughty Jewboy.
1938		in W. Winchell On Broadway 26 Nov. [synd. col.] It was only a Jew boy who we were licking.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 223: Fer Chris’sake, you look like a Jew-boy yerself.
1946		M.J. Blunt 8 Jan. diary in Garfield Our Hidden Lives (2004) 165: DJ [...] said Picasso had been encouraged to paint pictures by the ‘Jew Boys’ who were making packets out of the exhibition.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 146: Back off, Jewboy [...] your job is by the door.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 564: The guys call Sussman Jewboy all the time. He don’t care. They call Bloom Jewboy and he wants to beat up on everybody.
1953		W. Eyster Far from the Customary Skies 252: ‘Jew boy,’ had been one of the nicknames his friends had given him.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] Christ, that’s all he needed—the old razz about jewboys falling for jewgirls.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 22: You really going to marry a Jew-girl? [...] I’m not bigoted. I’ve known some pretty good nigger cops and Jew-boys.
1965		F. Pollini Glover 184: I’ll show that goddamn Jewboy. I’ll make him admit it, the Jewboy.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 100: This ol buck nigger and this Jewboy.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 8: We always had a stray wop or Jew-boy [...] with our gangs.
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 173: I’m goin’ to keep squeezing on your scrawny little Jewboy neck.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 53: Cockney kids have always called out ‘Walla walla Jewboy’.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 98: Ain’t no Jewboy that, and that ain’t no vic. That be a DT.
1995		A. Higgins Donkey’s Years 124: If his animus against ‘nancy-boys’ was more pronounced than his animus against ‘corner-boys’, his animus against ‘Jewboys’ was greater still.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 129: I find out Jewboy is cutting my fuckin’ gear about the same time I find out Jewboy is a Jewboy.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 156: That Jew boy he a gonna kill us all a one a day.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 357: So who’s the Jewboy in 1-2-1?
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 314: You two’re gonna have a great future with the department after this, Jew-boy.
2018		T. Pluck ‘Hot Rod Heart’ in Life During Wartime 106: ‘Where’s that hot wife of yours, Jewboy?’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 153: There was a Jewboy in the school. He had crept in unmentioned - and unnoticed.