Joe Miller

English Etymology After Joe Miller (actor) (1684–1738), the namesake of the 18th-century joke book Joe Miller's Jests. Noun en colloquial dated A stale jest; a worn-out joke. en Joe Joe Millerism en 1874 w: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. 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 quote appears in the author's footnotes 129 I can't see the Joe Miller. Can you? The point of something; the fun or utility in doing a thing. en 1867 George Manville Fenn Original penny readings 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. en 2003 Joe Coyle Athletics in Drogheda 1861-2001 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 en 1873 John Camden Hotten The Slang Dictionary en eponyms