Word.ws English Dictionary

jew

/d͡ʒuː/UK/d͡ʒuː/

jew is the alternative letter-case form of Jew.

jew is the pronunciation spelling of d' you.

jew is the pronunciation spelling of 'd you.

Noun (1)

jew (plural jews)

  1. (Australia) The jewfish.
    • The creeks gave us lots of food, too—yellow belly and jew, perch and eel.1994, Rita Huggins & Jackie Huggins, Auntie Rita, in Heiss & Minter, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 151

Noun (2) capitalized: Jew

Jew (plural Jews or (archaic) Jewes)

  1. An adherent of Judaism.
    • Both Jews and Muslims refrain from eating pork.
    Synonyms:
    Judaist
    Antonyms:
    gentile, goy
  2. A member or descendant of the Jewish people.
    • Many Jews eat bagels.
    • Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs
      dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
      the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
      to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
      warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
      as a Christian is?c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Antonyms:
    gentile, goy
  3. (derogatory) A miserly or greedy person; a cheapskate.
    • “Jesus, Williams, you're such a Jew,” Jimmy said in an annoyed, high-pitched tone. “Have you ever just paid a check, or do you always make an ass of yourself?”2010, Matthew S. Hiley, Hubris Falls, page 111
  4. (slang) A ship's tailor.

Proper noun capitalized: Jew

Jew (plural Jews)

  1. A surname.

Adjective capitalized: Jew

Jew (comparative more Jew, superlative most Jew)

  1. (derogatory, offensive, slang) Jewish.
    • Whenever a Jew nose casts its sinister shadow over the register, the hotel-keeper suddenly discovers that his hostelry is full to overflowing, and profoundly, but firmly, regrets his inability to receive any more guests.1888, Telemachus Thomas Timayenis, The American Jew: An Exposé of His Career, Minerva Publishing Company, page 23
    • "Started that Jew country on top of everything else, and then all hell broke loose ever since."2002, T. A. Baran, Galyat, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 121

Verb capitalized: Jew

Jew (third-person singular simple present Jews, present participle Jewing, simple past and past participle Jewed)

  1. (offensive, transitive) To make (more) Jewish.
    • 1991, E. Sicher, The Jewing of Skylock: Wesker's "The Merchant" (MLS 21 (1991), 57–69)
    • Portia's “Jewing” of Shylock has long been noticed by many critics. For an early example see, for example, the anonymous essay “shylock the Jew-ed,” Temple Bar 45 (1875): 65–70. 45. These words have potentially “commercial” etymologies,[…]2010 August 31, William N. West, Renaissance Drama 38, Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, page 111
  2. (ambitransitive, offensive) To haggle or swindle in order to obtain a better deal (from someone).
    • They stops you on the sly in the streets, and tells you to call at their house at sitch a hour of the day, and when you goes there they smuggles you quietly into some room by yourselves, and then sets to work Jewing away as hard as they can, prizing up their own things, and downcrying yourn.1864, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
    • Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me.1995, Michael Jackson, “They don't really care about us”

Synonyms of jew

Antonyms

Forms of jew

Verb
third-person singular presentjews
present participlejewing
past participlejewed
pastjewed
alternative formJew
third-person singular presentJews
present participleJewing
past participleJewed
pastJewed
Noun
pluraljews
pluralJews
plural (archaic)Jewes
alternative usually (derogatory)Joo
Proper noun
pluralJews
Adjective
comparativemore Jew
superlativemost Jew

Origin of jew

Transferred use of Jew.

From Middle English Jew, Giu, Giw, Ju, from Old French juiu, Giu, gyu, from Latin iūdaeus (“Judean (i.e. Jew)”), from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaîos), from Ἰουδά (Ioudá), Ἰούδας (Ioúdas, “Judah, Judas, Jude”) + -ιος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives), from Biblical Hebrew יְהוּדָה (y'hudá, “male given name, Yehuda; Judah, Judea”). Doublet of Yid. Displaced Old English Iūdēisċ.

Words formed from jew

Phrases with jew

18 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with jew

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jew

What does jew mean?
Jew means the jewfish.
What is jew the alternative letter-case form of?
Jew is the alternative letter-case form of Jew.
What part of speech is jew?
Jew can be a noun, a proper noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce jew?
Jew is pronounced /d͡ʒuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of jew?
The plural of jew is jews.

Words near jew in the dictionary

  1. Jevonian
  2. Jevons
  3. Jevons paradox
  4. Jevons' paradox
  5. Jevonsian
  6. jew
  7. Jew bail
  8. Jew City
  9. Jew crew
  10. Jew crews
  11. jew down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jew (page history and authors); Jew (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-jew.ogg.

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