Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Jerusalem adj.

a euph. for damned adj.

[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 153: It’s capital that: it’s a Jerusalem bright thought.
[UK]Nichols & Tully Twenty Below Act II: You’re a Jerusalem marvel, you are!

Proper name in slang uses

Pertaining to Jews or Judaism, usu. stereotyped

In compounds

Jerusalem apple (n.)

(US) a tomato.

[US]Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, PA) 25 Jan. 1/5: Tomato or Love Apple. this plan or vegetable, sometimes called Jerusalem Apple [...] was first found in South America.
[US]Ashtabula Wkly (OH) 5 Sept. 1/3: O! tomattuses. How good you are! [...] Folks used to sit you on the mantle pieces for ornament [...] and called you Jerusalem apples!
[US]News-Herald (Hillsboro, OH) 26 Jan. 1/3: in those days the ‘Love Apple’ or ‘Jerusalem Apple’ was an ornamental plant [...] and placed in window sills.
[US]St John’s Rev. (OR) 27 Aug. 2/4: Many years ago tomatoes were populaly known as‘love apples’ or ‘Jerusalem apples’.
[US]A.G. Field Watch Yourself Go By 10: Huh! Tomattisus! Never made to eat. They ain’t no good, no-way. Pap’s right. They’re called Jerusalem apples ’caus they wuz first planted by the Jews.
Jerusalem cuckoo (n.)

(Irish) a Jew.

[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 321: Ireland my nation says he (hoik! phthook!) never be up to those bloody (there’s the last of it) Jerusalem (ah!) cuckoos.

General uses

Jerusalem cuckoo (n.) [its ‘hee-haw’ bray is presumably reminiscent of the cuckoo’s ‘cuc-oo’]

a donkey.

[Aus](con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 126: ‘We oughta get one of them Jerusalem cuckoos for Father.’ ‘I don’t want no fucken donkey,’ Father snarled.
Jerusalem hobby (n.)

a donkey.

[UK]Sporting Mag. Apr. VI 55/1: A Jerusalem hobby (vulgarly called a jack-ass) race at Battle-bridge, for a Cheshire cheese.
Jerusalem overtaker (n.)

(US, Western) a comb.

[UK]W.A. Baillie-Grohman Camps in the Rockies 382: Using the ‘Jerusalem Overtaker’ – as he calls the remnant of a toothcomb.
Jerusalem pony (n.)

a donkey.

[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
[UK]Pierce Egan’s Life in London 8 Jan. 399/3: Miss Brockman was one morning riding on her Jerusalem pony, in her nankeen pelisse and green veil.
[UK]Punch iii 168, col. 2: We saw a Jerusalem Pony in Clare market yesterday.
[Aus]Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/3: ‘Proposals for a New Slang Dictionary’ [...] MOKE-Noun: a Jerusalem pony.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK](con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 28/1: Sometimes a party of two or three will be seen closely examining one of these ‘Jerusalem ponys,’ passing their hands down its legs.
[UK]Belfast News Ltr 4 Apr. 4/9: According to Mr Tyler [...] ‘Welsh rabbit’ is a genuine slang term, founded upon the same principler which makes ‘Munzster pluims’ signify potatoes, and a ‘Jerusalem pony’ stand for a donkey.
[UK]C.Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 215: The proper thing is to have a real Jerusalem Pony, i.e. donkey.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 8 Feb. 2/4: A hut containing a Jerusalem pony and a fine specimen of the chanticleeer [sic] or crowing cock.
[UK]J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 318: We mounted our ‘Jerusalem ponies’ to ride down the zigzag path.
Jerusalem slim (n.)

(US tramp) Jesus Christ.

[US]C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 392: Ye mean t’ say that this here dingbat, Jerusalem Slim, feeds a train-load o’ stiffs on a hunk o’ dry punk and a can o’ minnies, and then has enough left over for eight-seven lumps? G’wan! — ye’re loco!
[US]L. Adamic Laughing in the Jungle 208: Intellectual vagrants [...] derived satisfaction from referring to Jesus as ‘Jerusalem Slim’.