Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
Joe Miller. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
Joe Miller, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
Joe Miller in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
Joe Miller you have here. The definition of the word
Joe Miller will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
Joe Miller, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
After Joe Miller (actor) (1684–1738), the namesake of the 18th-century joke book Joe Miller's Jests.
Noun
Joe Miller (plural Joe Millers) (colloquial, dated)
- A stale jest; a worn-out joke.
- Synonyms: Joe, Joe Millerism
1874, William Pole, The Theory of the Modern Scientific Game of Whist:It is an old Joe Miller in whist circles, that there are only two reasons that can justify you in not returning trumps to your partner's lead; i.e., first, sudden illness; secondly, having none.
1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), : Burton Club , →OCLC:There is a venerable Joe Miller about a schoolmaster who, wishing to singe his long beard short, burnt it off and his face to boot:--which reminded him of the saying.
- The point of something; the fun or utility in doing a thing.
1867, George Manville Fenn, Original penny readings, page 59:"Don't begin them boots till I gives yer the order," says Jinks, as he goes out.
"No," I says, "I shan't;" nor I didn't neither, for I couldn't see the Joe Miller of it, and somehow or another Jinks never come inside my place again.
2003, Joe Coyle, Athletics in Drogheda 1861-2001, page 33:Had the committee been composed of teetotalers, and the sports run on strict Oliver Plunkett lines, one could understand the Joe Miller of it all; but when the meeting was otherwise conducted and received the patronage of brewers and publicans — well, it was hard lines to say the least that Tommy Atkins should have been permitted to return to his quarters in Dundalk musing over what a temperance or inhospitable set must be the Drogheda wheelers.
References
- John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary