Meaning of Joe Miller | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A stale jest; a worn-out joke.
   colloquial, dated
2. The point of something; the fun or utility in doing a thing.
   colloquial, dated

Examples

“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.”

“"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.”

“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.”

CEFR level