Meanings
jew down1
present singular third person jews down · participle present jewing down · participle past jewed down · past jewed down · alternative Jew down
- offensiveslangtransitiveTo bargain or haggle with a seller in order to obtain a lower price for a good or service.
I wanted to get $600 and a light job and they just jewed me down to $375 and a light job.
1920, Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of North Dakotahttps://books.google.com/books?id=wnAtAQAAMAAJ, Swan v. Great Northern R. Co., p. 2773 more examples
[…] the popular and fashionable lying, which is so prolific between merchant and customer, as the process of jewing down is going on among all traders of the day.
1861, George W. Henry, Tell Tale Rag, and Popular Sins of the Day, self-published, published 1861, page ixEquality, too, removes the possibility of bargaining, of jewing up or jewing down a salary, according to the exigencies of the moment.
1906, unnamed university president, quoted in John Maxson Stillman's "Relations of Salary to Title in American Universities", in Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the Eighth Annual Conference of the Association of American Universities, Association of American Universities (1907), page 80Millan had already been repeating his loud opinion of all Hindus, before the tailor he had so efficiently jewed down was half out of the room.
2005, Cedric Belfrage, Away from It All: An Escapologist's Notebook, Kessinger Publishing, published 2005, →ISBN, page 131Antonyms: jew up
Jew down2
present singular third person Jews down · participle present Jewing down · participle past Jewed down · past Jewed down
- USalternativeoffensiveAlternative spelling of jew down.
" […] I don't want to get Jewed down, you know. I'm sure you'll take care of me?"
2005, Michael Boloker, A Journey West, iUniverse, page 2042 more examples
" […] who should come along this mornin' but one of those same holy people, and Jewed me down on pay that the Lord knows is hard enough to live on."
1877, John Habberton, Some folks, K. Grädener, page 104Incidentally they ask a price much higher than it is worth; they expect to be Jewed down.
1906, Thomas Beyer, The American Battleship in Commission as Seen by an Enlisted Man: Also Many Man-o'-war Yarns, Army and Navy Register, page 202
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo bargain or haggle with a seller in order to obtain a lower price for a good or service.
Origin
From the noun Jew, based on the stereotype of Jews as parsimonious and driving hard bargains + down.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
jew down. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jew%20down
“jew down.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jew%20down. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jew down,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jew%20down.
Source: jew down on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.