Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) in every way, completely.

1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 17–18: The Sleeping Car is in right, both ways from the jack.
1909		E. Walter Easiest Way Act II: It’s hell forty ways from the Jack.
1910		R. Beach Going Some Ch. ix: Think he can’t do it, eh? Well, he’s there four ways from the ace.
1912		Cornhusker (U. of Nebraska) 5/1: I was there — there, ‘four ways from the jack.’.
1913		Van Loan ‘“Butterfly” Boggs: Pitcher’ in Lucky Seventh (2004) 240: Boggs is crazy forty ways from the ace.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 182: I could beat that English preacher both ways from the ace.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 266: He told me he was ‘for me fifty ways from the ace.’.
1930		B. Sinclair in Short Stories 10 July [title] Three Ways from the Ace.
1937		Street & Hecht Nothing Sacred [film script] Before I finish with that female Dracula, she’ll know one thing: that Oliver Stone is worse than radium poisoning four ways from the jack!
2004		M.R. Rinehart Breaking Point Ch. vii: His money’s been split up a dozen ways from the ace.
2004		posting at www.worldmagblog.com 5 Oct. 🌐 I’m no Nethercutt fan, but he still beats her four ways from the jack on the issues that matter to me.