a1854 J. F. Kelly Humors of Falconbridge (1856) 136 You're a pooty looking country jake, you are, to advertise for a dog, and don't know Chiney Terrier from a singed possum?

1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn xx. 194 No, don't you worry—these country jakes won't ever think of that.

1884 G. W. Peck Peck's Boss Bk. 68 A masher, like many of the Jakes of the present day.

1902 S. Clapin New Dict. Americanisms 242 Jake, a rough, uncouth country fellow.

1915 Dial. Notes 4 199 He's no jake even though he did come from a Nebraska farm.

1941 H. S. Truman Let. 5 Oct. in M. Truman Harry S. Truman (1973) viii. 142 You'd think I was Cicero or Cato. But I'm not. Just a country jake who works at the job.

1910 Atlanta Georgian & News 21 Nov. (Home 4th ed.) 3/4 One would think that nothing but a salamander or a professional fire-eater would regard ‘Jake’ as a beverage, for, so its victims say, it tastes something like a mixture of molten lead and forked lightning.

1926 Flynn's Weekly 16 Jan. 640/2 I sashayed for a legger an' run into a rube hip agent with a bottle and some jake which helped some.

1933 Lancet 22 Apr. 872/2 It is interesting to note that whereas Jake has been on the market since 1863 no cases of Jake paralysis were observed till 1930.

2003 New Yorker (Nexis) 15 Sept. 50 A paralyzed operator of a Georgia mill..vigorously denied drinking jake until his doctor tricked him.

1926 Ballymena (Antrim) Observer 2 July 10/2 'Johnny Jump Up' and 'Jake' are the names by which methylated spirit is known amongst the consumers in Glasgow.

1932 Fortn. Rev. Mar. 324 Over twenty-five per cent. are ‘jake’ or ‘feke’ drinkers... They drink methylated spirits.

1935 H. Neville Sneak Thief on Road ii. 162 That's pure meths... They call it Blue Billy or jake.

1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath x. 131 He would drink jake or whisky until he was a shaken paralytic.

1998 H. G. Klaus in A. Croft Weapon in Struggle i. 20 Don't touch it, sir. Been a Jake drinker in my day.

1930 N.Y. Times 30 Mar. e7/1 The popularity of prohibition..in Kentucky..is decidedly on the wane... The latest manifestation of this attitude has shown itself..following the outbreak of a form of partial paralysis, commonly referred to as ‘jake leg,’ in the eastern and central sections of the State.

2014 J. Logan Slocum & Darling Damsels Durango xv. 82 Is that all, then? One able-bodied man and the one with the jake leg?

1930 Lee County (Georgia) Jrnl. 15 Aug. 1/1 Jack and Gill came from a still, And tried to do a cake-walk. Jill fell down and broke her crown, And Jack pulled off a jake walk.

2007 T. Russell Country Music Originals (2010) 73/2 In 1930 a batch of jake was put on the market that had been dangerously adulterated, and thousands of Southerners were partially paralyzed after drinking it. The condition..gave the sufferer a distinctive hobbling gait, the ‘jake walk’.

1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 48 As an adjective ‘jake’ means good; satisfactory; acceptable; all-right.

1921 P. & T. Casey in Adventure (U.S.) 18 May 40/2 Well, if it is Jerrold, everything's jake.

1924 P. Marks Plastic Age xxii. 247 She said the whole college seemed jake to her.

1924 P. G. Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror vi. 130 Everything was jake with Horace.

1930 Amer. Mercury Dec. 456 Five skins is jake by me.

1943 N.Z.E.F. Times (2nd N.Z. Expeditionary Force) 10 May 5/1 She'll be Jake on the counter.

1947 D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 190 We'll just give [the tea] a minute to draw and she'll be jake.

1958 R. France Race 100 ‘Will you be all right..if I lie down in the wheelhouse?’..‘I'm jake. You have a rest.’

1958 ‘A. Gilbert’ Death against Clock viii. 105 ‘If it's about the election we vote conservative here.’ ‘Jake by me,’ said Mr. Crook politely.

1967 Southerly 27 149 ‘Is she [sc. a train] on time?’..‘She's jake tonight mate.’

1970 N.Z. Listener 12 Oct. 12/4 Long as there's plenty of beer, she'll be jake.

1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 29 Jake-aloo.

1936 N. Marsh Death in Ecstasy xvii. 211 It'll all come out what the Australians call ‘jakealoo’.

1936 ‘R. Hyde’ Passport to Hell xi. 174 Jakeloo, Starkie; she's a little beauty, clean through my arm.

1938 X. Herbert Capricornia xii. 169 ‘Lambkin, you're not wounded, are you?’..‘Na—ow! I'm jakerloo.’ ‘You're what?’ she demanded, looking scared. ‘Jakerloo Mum, jakerloo.’ ‘What—not a disease, my darling?’ ‘Na—ow—that's French for “I'm good-o”.’

1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai viii. 123 Jakeloo! Let's have the names then, and the addresses.