Word.ws English Dictionary

jehu

UK/ˈd͡ʒiːhjuː/US/ˈd͡ʒi.hju/

jehu noun: a coachman; a driver; especially, one who drives furiously.

Noun (1)

jehu (plural jehus)

  1. (colloquial, dated) A coachman; a driver; especially, one who drives furiously.
    • Among those who seemed disposed to join in this opinion was the Jehu of the Warwickshire coach, who expressed his conviction to our hero, that "he wos a young gent as had much himproved hisself since he tooled him up to the Warsity with his guvnor."1850s, Cuthbert M. Bede, The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green

Proper noun capitalized: Jehu

Jehu

  1. A king of Israel in the 9th century B.C.
    • Now Azaēlos, the king of Syria, made war on the Israelites and their king Jehu, and ravaged the eastern parts of the country across the Jordan […] spreading fire everywhere and plundering everything and inflicting violence on all who fell into his hands.1937, Josephus, Ralph Marcus, transl., chapter VIII, in Josephus: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volume VI (Jewish Antiquities), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; Cambridge...
  2. A male given name from Hebrew.
  3. A surname.

Noun (2) capitalized: Jehu

Jehu (plural Jehus)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of jehu.
    • ‘Are you sure, Atherton, that there is no one at the back?’
      ‘Of course I’m sure, — you can go and see for yourself if you like; do you think I’m blind? Jehu’s drunk.’ Throwing up the sash he addressed the driver. ‘What do you mean with your old gent at the window? — what window?’1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle

Forms of jehu

pluraljehus
pluralJehus

Origin of jehu

England from 17th century, from Jehu. The Bible says of Jehu (son of Nimshi) that "he driveth furiously" (2 Kings 9:20). He was commander of chariots for the king of Israel before later leading a revolt and becoming king himself.

Borrowed from Biblical Hebrew יֵהוּא (Yēhûʔ). Attested to in Akkadian as 𒁹𒅀𒌑𒀀 𒌉 𒁹𒄷𒌝𒊑𒄿 (Yaua mār Ḫumrî, literally “Jehu son of Omri”).

Questions about jehu

What does jehu mean?
Jehu means a coachman; a driver; especially, one who drives furiously.
What part of speech is jehu?
Jehu can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce jehu?
Jehu is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒiːhjuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of jehu?
The plural of jehu is jehus.

Words near jehu in the dictionary

  1. Jehovism
  2. Jehovist
  3. Jehovistic
  4. Jehovists
  5. Jehovy
  6. jehu
  7. jehus
  8. Jeir
  9. jejeunostomies
  10. jejeunostomy
  11. jejeunum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jehu (page history and authors); Jehu (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “jehu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jehu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.