Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The driver of a hackney-coach.
  • noun A hackney-coach.
  • To drive along, like a hackney-coachman or jarvey.

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

  • noun Slang, Eng. The driver of a hackney coach.
  • noun Slang, Eng. A hackney coach.

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

  • noun dated, 17th & 18th centuries a hackney coach driver
  • noun Ireland the driver of a jaunting car.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Two origins are known, although there is no solid evidence for either.

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Examples

  • It took me over a long stretch of the best hunting country of Galway, and my jarvey was a

    Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (2 of 2) (1888) William Henry Hurlbert 1861

  • _quondam_ "jarvey," who understood the handling of horses as every

    The Free Lances A Romance of the Mexican Valley Mayne Reid 1850

  • I looked back at the cursing driver in time to see him close the door on another latecomer, a cove in a brown suit and bowler who was demanding that he open it again, but jarvey wasn't having any, and the bus rolled off with the fellow staring after us through the glass.

    THE NUMBERS 2010

  • Sir Walter Scott made a single lowland Scottish dialect serve for all Scotland; and the Irish novelists, or the greater number of them, made Munster, Leinster and Connaught talk like a Dublin jarvey.333 Scott and the Irish novelists did their work according to their knowledge and their purpose, and were justified.

    Later Articles and Reviews W.B. Yeats 2000

  • The jarvey stared at her in momentary stupefaction.

    A Wicked Gentleman Jane Feather 2007

  • The jarvey stared at her in momentary stupefaction.

    A Wicked Gentleman Jane Feather 2007

  • Lester leaned in and placed the child on her lap, then called an instruction to the jarvey as he climbed in after her.

    A Wicked Gentleman Jane Feather 2007

  • Lester leaned in and placed the child on her lap, then called an instruction to the jarvey as he climbed in after her.

    A Wicked Gentleman Jane Feather 2007

  • On arrival, they soon secured their booty, paid the jarvey, and lay down to rest.

    Ralph Rashleigh 2004

  • The jarvey addressed as it happened had not but the keeper took

    Ulysses 2003

Comments

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  • Hands stuck in his trousers pockets, jarvey off for the day, singing.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 4

    December 31, 2006

  • n. 1. The driver of a hackney coach.

    December 17, 2007

  • "The bump on his head was so slight that the jarvey's bowler hat still remained on his head, and the horse, who had all the sense of responsibility required by the situation, stopped dead with the jarvey plastered affectionately across his back, and waited for somebody to do something."

    - Frank O'Connor, 'A Salesman's Romance'.

    September 5, 2008

  • (noun) - (1) English coach or cab drivers were given this nickname from, it is said, an original driver whose name was Jarvis. The origin is doubtful, however, and it should be pointed out that the symbol of St. Gervais is a whip.

    --Edwin Radford's Unusual Words and How The Came About, 1946

    (2) Hove, to take shelter; hence, hovel, a sheltering place.

    --Edgerton Leigh's Dialect of Cheshire, 1877

    January 14, 2018