Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a coachman or cab-driver, thus v. Jehu, to drive.

1732		Progress of a Rake 9: dicky, when Uncle did approach / To meet him, was without the Coach, / Driving with Jehu, in the Box.
[1767		J. O’Keeffe The She-Gallant 15: That rascal coachman drove like Jehu].
[c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Jehu, to drive Jehu like, to drive furiously, from a famous charioteer and King of Israel who was of that name mentioned in the Bible.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 24 Apr. 102/2: [H]e, himself, was Jehu-ing this fourwheeled carriage along Lisle-street.
1830		N. Ames Mariner’s Sketches 184: Lord Bentinck [...] paraded about the streets, in a phaeton, a very indifferent Jehu indeed.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 8 Jan. n.p.: The matchless team was drove in fine style by a well known jehew.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 416: Johns and Jehus touch their lace-daubed ’ats.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 July 2/4: The antagonizing Jehus, immediately joined in direful contact—horses pranced—wheeis clattered—and the struggle threatened danger to all in the perilous vicinity.
1854		F. St. Clair Six Days in the Metropolis 11: Jehu [...] brought his lash down about the ears of both horses, and like lightning we shot ahead!
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: The Jehu [...] clambers on his perch, handles his ribbons as he would a bunch of carrots; flourishes his long-lashed whip [...] until he breaks into a canter.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 93: Very hard they are upon the cabman [...] and much are they maledicted by the badged Jehus as they drive slowly away.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter III 168: The carriage was dragged out, and the horses harnessed to it, but it was not entrusted to the Jehu of the morning; he was a prisoner with the rest.
1876		Freeman’s Jrnl 25 Jan. 7/5: [headline] A Word For Jehu.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. 21 Oct. 11/2: The Jehu had the reputation of being quite a bruiser.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Jehu - Old slang term for a coachman.
1883		‘Three Chums’ in Boudoir IV 132: Jehu was in a hurry to get home, so that the clock striking one saw them at their destination.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 31 May 35/1: I have known many celebrated gentleman Jehus.
1886		N.Z. Observer and Free Lance (Auckland) 20 Mar. 23/4: A young jehu [...] was sent for a couple of ‘Hand Grenades’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 7/1: A cabby was had the other day. A man asked him to drive him to Bondi, and in stepping on to the footboard of the cab [...] crossed over and got cut the other side. But the Jehu did not notice this, and drove off delightfully.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 172: I got back, after paying Jehu, and seeing him join the other driver.
1896		M. Williams Round London 216: Telling the Jehu to drive to the Rag, jumped into the cab and was driven off.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 May 5/7: The Jehu leaned down: ‘If you've got a mackintosh in there [...] you might oblige the young lady up here’.
1905		Marvel III:55 5: The jehu pulled up at the Common.
1908		Indiana Qly Mag. History 4-6 19: the old traveling thresher, with six stout farm horses attached, driven by a rollicking country Jehu,.
1909		N.Z. Truth 30 Jan. 5/6: [headline] Jehu and the Joy Juice.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 July 2nd sect. 12/5: Who would be a cabman bold [...] smoking content on a cab rank? Since the cars ceased running, some of the Perth Jehus have been knocking out £3 a day.
1911		G.R. Sims Off the Track in London 121: Cabmen from a neighbouring rank, typical London Jehus.
1916		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 18 Aug. [synd. col.] The seagoing hack, sometimes known as a low-necked hack, came back into its own as a result of the car strike [...] The jehus made from $15 to $20 a day.
1921		O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 25 Nov. [synd. col.] Madison Square lined with ancient Jehus, red-nosed and toothless.
1938		Western Morn. News 19 Nov. 9/7: [headline] Tommy Atkins No Jehu But He Knows How to Drive.
[1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 84: He dhrove like Jehu].
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Man’s Guilt’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective May 🌐 There weren’t any visible bruises or contusions on her conk, so maybe the jehu was leveling.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 62: [He] stepped into a waiting taxi and ordered the jehu to take him to a Harlem address.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1837

D. Crockett in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 108: A coat of strong blue cloth of the Jehu cut, with white bone buttons of the Jehu size.

3. any form of driver.

1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: [T]hose abominations of wheeled carts, objects of terror to incipient Jehus and shying horses.
1860		Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 11: The outward bound Jehu has to get his horse by the head.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Jan. 4/2: There is a certain ’bus Jehu who drives all day chewing a rose-bud.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/3: Invercargill (M.L.) – the town so frequently mentioned by Archdeacon Boyce and other water-waggon jehus.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 569: But, as he confidently anticipated, there was not a sign of a Jehu plying for hire.
[2001		‘John le Carré’ Constant Gardener 271: Leap in a car? Drive like Jehu to the High Commission, wave the letter at me, march me in to Porter?].

4. (US, also jayhoo) a rustic, simpleton [jay n.¹ (4)].

1906		O.W. Hanley ‘Dialect Words From Southern Indiana’ in DN III:ii 120: Jehu, n. A greenhorn; country fellow. ‘That Jehu’s silly.’.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 32: You mean Sandra Taney hired you two jayhoos?