Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a 5-cent piece, a nickel.

1899		Morning Herald 4: ‘Can’t spare de change. Me granmaw died in Sout’ Afriky an’ I need di to float me over ter de fun’ral.’ ‘Quit yer kiddin’ an’ let me have a jitney.’.
1903		Cincinnati Enquirer 2 May 11/5: [In St. Louis] a ‘crown guy’ is a policeman, a ‘gitney’ is a nickel, and ‘mug’s landing’ is the Union Station [DA].
1912		Dallas Morn. News (TX) 10 Mar. 7: Say, feller, I ain’t a beggar, but I’m up against it. Could you slip me a jitney.
1913		S.F. Bulletin 21 Feb. 12: One hundred jitneys, fifty zanes, twenty questres, ten hicks or five dobies are to be distributed to the gentleman, lady, lad or lass who comes up with the best definition.
1920		H. Wiley Wildcat 240: ‘For two jitneys and a picayune Ah’d choke you to death,’ he hissed.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway Aug. n.d. [synd. col.] Life mag is planning to tilt the price another jitney.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Poison Payoff’ Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I’ll lay you six, two, and even that the will stands pat and you don’t get a jitney.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 805: jitney – A nickel.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 93: Just as you got your jitney out to have the fare ready.

2. (US) a small, cheap car or vehicle; also attrib.

1917		cited in J.A. Weingarten Amer. Dict. Sl.
1918		Wash. Times (Wash., DC) 4 Sept. 17/3: One 1917 Studebaker jitney.
1947		Chicago Trib. 9 Nov. I 27/1: With flashlights they stopped the old ‘jitney’ I’d hired [DA].
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 62: So to hell with these jitney jockeys.
1985		E. Leonard Glitz 114: Rainy night, wind blowing [...] you want to go a few blocks on Pacific, you hop a jitney, six bits.
1997		P. Theroux Kowloon Tong 79: Luz was from Manila. A city of bangers and jitneys.

3. (US, also jitney bus) a street car or bus charging a fixed fare; also attrib.

1914		L.A. Times 22 Oct. 18/3: The rapidly growing jitney bus activitty along the principle throughfares.
1915		Day Book (Chicago) 6 Feb. 26/1: Type of Jitney Bus Proposed for Chicago.
1916		Sun (NY) 25 June 46: [caption for pic. of man riding a donkey] The Greek jitney. The bigger the man the smaller the donkey.
1919		N.Y. Tribune 27 Apr. 67/1: Nancy had been waiting all morning for the jitney to turn into the lane.
1925		Temp Act. 147 of General Assembly of Vermont 19 Mar. n.p.: For the purpose of this act a jitney is any motor vehicle advertised or regularly used for carrying passengers for hire.
1929		E. Booth Stealing Through Life 74: That an automobile had been used called for additional comment [...] Soon after that there was a deluge of ‘jitney-bus bandits’ in operation.
1947		W.A. White ‘Mary White’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 60: She used the car as a jitney bus. It was her social life.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 33: The bridge shook as a jitney, loaded with Mexicans sitting stiffly in the high seats, roared by.
2000		R. Antoni Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales 97: These jitneys and Jeeps full of American soldiers.

4. (US black) a cab; also attrib.

1919		A. Baer Two & Three 6 Apr. [synd. col.] Hank [i.e. Henry Ford] put the horses in the museau with his jitney hack.
1941		Billy Erskine ‘The Jitney Man’ 🎵 I’m the jitney man; / A regular jockey I am, / Any place you want to go / I can take you fast or slow.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 171: I [...] caught a jitney cab at 31st Street.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: jitney n. cab service.