Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. clever, ‘sharp’.

1767

Gent.’s Mag. in Curious Articles from Gent.’s Mag. I 143: A cute man, is an abbreviation of acute [...] and signifies a person that is sharp, clever, neat, or to use a more modern term, jemmy.

2. dandified, fashionable; thus jemminess, neatness, smartness; jemmily, smartly.

1754		Connoisseur No. 19 150: The jemmy attorney’s clerk, – the prim curate.
1764		Low-life 72: Wives [...] dressing themselves up in the Jemmy Taste with half Caps, many Ribbons, long Ruffles [etc].
1771		R. King New London Spy 25: The smart mercers [...] with their jemmy appre ntices.
1784		Rambler’s Mag. Jan. 8/2: Tom’s great ambition is to be deemed a jemmy fellow.
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist I 11: He is not quite 27, and once was as smart a fellow as ever stood toast-master, dressed as jemmy, laid his money as well.
1795		J. O’Keeffe Life’s Vagaries 17: On with my buckskin and jemmy jacket.
c.1805		‘The Rage’ Jovial Songster 19: Thus the rage is the rage: if it hides or reveals, / So ’tis jemmy and natty and knowing.
1820		‘Jacko and Judas’ Slops Shave at a Broken Hone 17: His neck adorn’d with turquoise broche and jemmy tie.
1825		Todd Eng. Dict. n.p.: Jemmy, spruce. A low word.
1840		Wilson & Chambers Land of Burns 33: I must tell you that Burns had got a pair of jemmy boots for the journey.