Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb offensive To bargain shrewdly or unfairly with. Often used with down.
  • transitive verb offensive To haggle so as to reduce (a price). Often used with down.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Hebrew; an Israelite.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Originally, one belonging to the tribe or kingdom of Judah; after the return from the Babylonish captivity, any member of the new state; a Hebrew; an Israelite.
  • noun An adherent of Judaism.
  • noun gum styrax, or benzoin.
  • noun (Bot.) an annual herb (Corchorus olitorius) cultivated in Syria and Egypt as a pot herb, and in India for its fiber.
  • noun asphaltum; bitumen.
  • noun an imaginary personage, who, for his cruelty to Christ during his passion, is doomed to wander on the earth till Christ's second coming.
  • noun any of several house plants of the genera Zebrina and Tradescantia having white-striped leaves, especially the creeping plants Zebrina pendula and Tradescantia fluminensis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb offensive To bargain, to attempt to gain an unfair price in a business deal; to defraud.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person belonging to the worldwide group claiming descent from Jacob (or converted to it) and connected by cultural or religious ties

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From prejudiced perceptions of Jews as extortionate moneylenders.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the stereotype of Jews as scheming merchants. Compare gyp ("swindle") (which is probably from gypsy ("Roma")), and welsh ("swindle by defaulting on a debt"), from Welsh.

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